Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound

Contrast-enhanced ultrasound is the use of an injected ultrasound contrast medium, typically gas-filled microbubbles, alongside traditional medical sonography. Because the microbubbles reflect sound waves far more strongly than surrounding soft tissue, they enhance the ultrasound backscatter and produce an image with much greater contrast, allowing clinicians to image blood perfusion in organs and measure blood flow rate in the heart and other organs. The technique is regarded as safe in adults, comparable to the safety of MRI contrast agents and safer than the radiocontrast agents used in contrast CT scans, and the more limited safety data in children suggests it is similarly safe in that population.