Science to practice: Can contrast-enhanced US of targeted microbubbles be used to monitor and quantify inflammation in patients with inflammatory bowel disease?

Deshpande et al (1) have shown that P-selectin-targeted microbubbles (MBs) can be used to monitor the expression of this molecule as a marker of inflammation in a murine model of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). If these results can be reproduced in future clinical trials, contrast material–enhanced ultrasound (US) of targeted MBs (US molecular imaging) will enable accurate monitoring of inflammation and, specifically, response to IBD therapy, which should improve clinical outcomes.