Dynamics of microbubbles for diagnostic ultrasound imaging

Various kinds of ultrasound contrast agents have been developed for diagnostic imaging purposes and these agents have been used for therapeutic purposes. These are microbubbles, which consist of air or higher molecular weight gases, stabilized by shells of different materials, such as lipid, polymer and surfactants. In this study, the oscillations of several kinds of microbubbles with different gas cores and the role of the surrounding shell are numerically investigated with more accurate models which determine the interior gas motion and its associated thermal phenomena.