Molecular ultrasound imaging using microbubble contrast agents

Molecular imaging is a new field in bioscience which, by virtue of utilizing a contrast agent or reporter, facilitates early detection of the disease processes before phenotypic changes become apparent. Molecular imaging with ultrasound utilizes contrast agents that bear adhesion ligands designed to bind tissue markers specific for a disease process. Such agents can be detected by ultrasound with a great degree of sensitivity, providing both anatomical reference information as well as additional data such as molecular characteristics of the interrogated region. This review summarizes current applications and challenges of molecular ultrasound imaging and offers future technologies which likely follow as an improvement to the existing techniques. Due to the widespread availability of ultrasound and ease of use, molecular ultrasound imaging is likely to emerge as a powerful diagnostic technique.