Colloquium February 28
Date: Friday February 28
Time: 16:00 to 17:00
Place: 455 McBryde, Commons Room
Speaker: Damir Khismatullin
of the Math Dept.
Title: Medical ultrasound imaging and drug delivery
Abstract
Medical ultrasound imaging, also called echosonography or ultrasound
scanning, is a relatively low-cost, non-invasive and radiation-free
technique, which make use of high-frequency sound waves to image the human
body. This technique provides accurate visualization of many of the body's
internal organs, including the heart, liver, kidneys, spleen, gall-bladder,
pancreas, and bladder. Echosonography is on the forefront of modern
medicine, and its uses in diagnosis are continually growing, and actually
replacing more invasive procedures. It is currently the primary clinical
technique for viewing the fetus and placenta and for the measurement of
blood flow in the arteries. In the first part of my talk, I review the
existing methods of ultrasound imaging (B-mode, Doppler, etc.) and discuss
using the ultrasound contrast agents (microbubbles) for enhancing the
quality of ultrasound images. In the second part of the talk, a mathematical
model for oscillation of contrast agents in blood is presented. Based on
this model, I show that the resonance frequency of contrast agents highly
depends on viscous damping, and therefore, significantly differs from the
undamped natural frequency. The significance of the obtained results for
echosonography is discussed. In the last part of my talk, I review the
methods for delivery of drugs and genes to affected tissues (viral vectors,
vesicles) and outline the prospects for using microbubbles as drug/gene
carriers.
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