| Atherosclerosis is a progressive occlusive disease of the arterial vessels. A sensitive molecular imaging technique that can identify the early markers of atherosclerosis may assist clinicians in determining the presence or extent of the disease and in later stages this approach may also help in assessing the future risk of the disease progression. In my dissertation, I propose an ultrasound based quantitative technique that can effectively guide flowing targeted microbubbles and selectively image static microbubbles. This approach may also provide interventional guidance in mediating local drug delivery. Phenomena such as microbubble-microbubble interaction and microbubble-cell interactions are poorly understood. A thorough understanding of these phenomena can aid in selectively guiding, imaging and destroying adherent microbubbles, thus enhancing local drug delivery. I propose and validate a non-linear 3D finite element analysis (FEA) model for quantifying microbubble dynamics. This model estimates the coupled 3D oscillatory-translational motion, microbubble shell stress/strain, and backscattered acoustic pressure. The results from this model are validated against the published experimental data. This model has great potential in addressing complex problems such as analyzing the 3D asymmetric modes of vibration and in providing complementary information in the form of shell stress and strain. This detail of information is not available from conventional 1D models. |
