Developments of many cardiovascular problems have been shown to have a close relationship with arterial flow conditions.However,current ultrasound/Doppler imaging techniques cannot resolve the complex nature of arterial blood flow.We have recently developed a novel contrast-based echo particle imaging technique（Echo PIV） without angel dependence for non-invasively measuring multi-component flow vectors.This study introduces the Echo PIV principles,system characterization and utility examination to characterize hemodynamics in pipe laminar flow and rotating flow.Echo PIV measurement results show its capability to resolve the complex hemodynamics including proximal flow velocity vectors,and velocity mapping. The Echo PIV method provides an easy,direct and accurate means of quantitatively yet non-invasively characterizing the complex vascular hemodynamics.
Secondary radiation force can be an attractive force causing aggregates of encapsulated microbubbles in ultrasonic molecular imaging. The influence of the secondary radiation force on aggregation between two coated bubbles is investigated in this study. Numerical calculations are performed based on four simultaneous differential equations of radial and translational motions. Results show that the secondary force can change from attraction to repulsion during approach, and stable microbubble pairs can be formed in the vicinity of resonant regions; the possibility of microbubble aggregations can be reduced by using low exciting amplitude, ultrasonic frequencies deviating from the resonant frequencies or microbubbles with small compressibility.
