Microfluidic system for high throughput characterisation of echogenic particles.

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Acoustic Physics
• Nanotechnology

Background:

• Echogenic particles like microbubbles and droplets are vital for clinical diagnostics and therapeutics.
• Predicting their ultrasound response is challenging, hindering quantitative imaging and targeted drug delivery.
• Current methods, such as ultra-high speed microscopy, have limitations in data acquisition and particle dynamics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a microfluidic system for measuring the response of single echogenic particles to ultrasound excitation.
• To overcome the limitations of existing characterization techniques, enabling large data set acquisition and preserving natural particle dynamics.
• To facilitate the optimization of ultrasound-based diagnostic and therapeutic applications.

Main Methods:

• A microfluidic system utilizing a co-axial flow focusing device was engineered.
• Unconstrained particles were directed through the focal region of an ultrasound transducer and a laser.
• Simultaneous recording of optical and acoustic scatter from individual particles was performed.

Main Results:

• The system demonstrated high throughput, measuring up to 20 particles per second.
• It achieved high resolution, detecting radius changes as small as 0.1 μm.
• An uncertainty of less than 3% was achieved in measurements.

Conclusions:

• The developed microfluidic system effectively measures single echogenic particle responses to ultrasound.
• This high-throughput, high-resolution technique overcomes previous limitations, enabling better statistical analysis.
• The system holds significant potential for advancing quantitative ultrasound imaging and targeted drug delivery applications.