Provided herein are methods and devices for identifying and/or distinguishing UCA formulations and specifically activating such formulations to produce UCA suitable for in vivo use.

Microbubble production and size isolation with high yield processing. Specifically, a size isolation process is used in which a diffusion coefficient related to gas diffusion forces acting on microbubbles in suspension is controlled through maintaining diffusion parameters for the suspension. Diffusion parameters may include effective viscosity, which may be a function of microbubble volume fraction. Another diffusion parameter controlled may include temperature. In turn, microbubbles may be size isolated at high yields, which may provide for advantageous microbubble products that demonstrate increased stability for storage.

A method of manufacturing a suspension of gas-filled microvesicles by reconstituting a freeze-dried product and a suspension obtained according to said method, where the freeze-dried product has been subjected to a thermal treatment.

The present invention relates to the use of contrast-enhanced ultrasound using microbubble-based ultrasound contrast agents to accomplish noninvasive subharmonic aided pressure estimation (SHAPE) in a region of interest (ROI) of a subject. The method of the invention provides a non-invasive, direct, and accurate method for pressure estimation.

The present disclosure related to a method of using high frequency sound waves directed toward an acoustically active particle. The high frequency sound waves may be configured to enlarge the acoustically active particle and oscillate the acoustically active particle, thereby facilitating extravasation of an agent to a tissue compartment of a region of interest.

The invention relates to an ultrasound contrast agent (UCA) comprising an outer shell and a gas core. The gas core is filled with oxygen, and the outer shell comprises a first surfactant and a second surfactant. The invention also relates to a method of making an oxygen-filled UCA and delivering oxygen to a local area of a subject's body. The method comprises injecting a composition comprising an oxygen-filled UCA of the invention into the subject's body; directing ultrasound radiation to the local area in an intensity sufficient to rupture the UCA.

A method for ascertaining the presence of target-bound microbubbles in the context of ultrasound molecular imaging is taught. This method, referred to herein as dynamic scaling ultrasound molecular imaging, relies upon the time-varying behavior contrast agents within a region expressing a molecular imaging target and that within a reference region. Ultrasound contrast agents compositions that enable use of the method are also taught. The method is useful for the use of ultrasound molecular imaging in diagnosing and monitoring treatment.

Provided herein are genetically engineered gas vesicle expression systems (GVES) that are configured to express gas vesicles (GVs) in a mammalian cell, related gas vesicle polynucleotide constructs, gas vesicle reporting genetic circuits, vectors, genetically engineered mammalian cells, non-human mammalian hosts, compositions, methods and systems, which in several embodiments can be used together with contrast-enhanced imaging techniques to detect and report biological events in an imaging target site comprising a mammalian cell and/or organism.

Fibrin-targeted microbubbles and their use in ultrasound-based diagnostic and therapeutic applications are disclosed. In particular, the invention relates to the use of fibrin-targeted polymerized shell lipid microbubbles and methods of fabricating and using such fibrin-targeted microbubbles for ultrasound imaging of fibrin deposition in tissue, including adhesions and atherosclerotic plaques. The invention further relates to the use of such fibrin-targeted microbubbles as carriers for drug delivery and in ultrasound-based methods of treatment.

A method may include providing a syringe device having (a) a single needle, (b) a first syringe comprising saline with microbubbles, (c) a second syringe comprising a therapeutic compound, and (d) a connector coupling the single needle to the first syringe and to the second syringe. The method may further include guiding the single needle to an injection site of a patient; injecting, with the first syringe, a quantity of saline with microbubbles; confirming a desired position of the single needle, with ultrasound imaging, by identifying the microbubbles in the quantity of saline relative to a tip of the single needle and further relative to one or more anatomical landmarks visible with the ultrasound imaging; and injecting, with the second syringe, the therapeutic compound at the injection site.