Imaging Microbubbles With Contrast-Enhanced Endobronchial Ultrasound

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Oncology
• Pulmonology

Background:

• Endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS) is standard for lymph node staging in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
• Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) with microbubbles (MBs) enhances tumor imaging, but its application in EBUS (CE-EBUS) requires evaluation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the capability of a CE-EBUS system to detect microbubbles (MBs).
• To compare CE-EBUS MB imaging performance against clinical and pre-clinical CEUS systems in vitro and in vivo.

Main Methods:

• In vitro: Agar flow phantoms and reference tissue were used to evaluate CE-EBUS MB imaging.
• In vivo: Tumor-bearing mice (A549 and AE17-OVA) were used to assess MB detectability and perfusion.

Main Results:

• CE-EBUS demonstrated a similar contrast-to-tissue ratio (CTR) to clinical CEUS in vitro.
• In vivo, CE-EBUS perfusion curves strongly correlated with pre-clinical CEUS (r=0.927).
• CE-EBUS achieved a 2.7-fold higher CTR than the pre-clinical system.

Conclusions:

• CE-EBUS exhibits contrast imaging performance comparable to commercial ultrasound systems.
• This technology holds potential for improved clinical characterization of mediastinal lymph nodes in lung cancer.