Zhang Ge, Liao Chen, Hu Jun-Rui, Hu Hai-Man, Lei Yu-Meng, Harput Sevan, Ye Hua-Rong
Department of Medical Ultrasound, China Resources & Wisco General Hospital, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430080, People's Republic of China.
Hubei Province Key Laboratory of Occupational Hazard Identification and Control, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430065, People's Republic of China.
ACS Sens. 2023 Sep 22;8(9):3294-3306. doi: 10.1021/acssensors.3c00418. Epub 2023 Aug 22.
Over the past decade, super-resolution ultrasound localization microscopy (SR-ULM) has revolutionized ultrasound imaging with its capability to resolve the microvascular structures below the ultrasound diffraction limit. The introduction of this imaging technique enables the visualization, quantification, and characterization of tissue microvasculature. The early implementations of SR-ULM utilize microbubbles (MBs) that require a long image acquisition time due to the requirement of capturing sparsely isolated microbubble signals. The next-generation SR-ULM employs nanodroplets that have the potential to significantly reduce the image acquisition time without sacrificing the resolution. This review discusses various nanodroplet-based ultrasound localization microscopy techniques and their corresponding imaging mechanisms. A summary is given on the preclinical applications of SR-ULM with nanodroplets, and the challenges in the clinical translation of nanodroplet-based SR-ULM are presented while discussing the future perspectives. In conclusion, ultrasound localization microscopy is a promising microvasculature imaging technology that can provide new diagnostic and prognostic information for a wide range of pathologies, such as cancer, heart conditions, and autoimmune diseases, and enable personalized treatment monitoring at a microlevel.
在过去十年中，超分辨率超声定位显微镜（SR-ULM）凭借其分辨超声衍射极限以下微血管结构的能力，彻底改变了超声成像。这种成像技术的引入使得组织微血管的可视化、定量分析和特征描述成为可能。SR-ULM的早期实现利用微泡（MBs），由于需要捕获稀疏孤立的微泡信号，因此图像采集时间很长。下一代SR-ULM采用纳米液滴，有望在不牺牲分辨率的情况下显著缩短图像采集时间。本文综述了各种基于纳米液滴的超声定位显微镜技术及其相应的成像机制。总结了基于纳米液滴的SR-ULM的临床前应用，并在讨论未来前景的同时，提出了基于纳米液滴的SR-ULM临床转化中面临的挑战。总之，超声定位显微镜是一种很有前途的微血管成像技术，可为癌症、心脏病和自身免疫性疾病等多种病理状况提供新的诊断和预后信息，并能够在微观层面实现个性化治疗监测。
