Contrast harmonic imaging

The behavior of ultrasound contrast agents depends highly on the acoustic pressure of the insonified ultrasound wave. For low pressure the expansion and compression is linear to the pressure, for medium acoustic pressure nonlinear behavior starts to occur and for high pressures, but still in the diagnostic range transient scattering can be noticed, resulting in an enhanced scattering followed by a disappearance of the bubble. The nonlinear and transient regime can be utilized for imaging of the contrast agent in or nearby tissue. The magnitude of the nonlinear signal from the contrast has to compete with the nonlinear component of the ultrasound wave, which is generated during propagation. It is shown that contrast is superior to tissue when using low frequencies and imaging the third or fourth harmonic of the transmitted frequency.