ULTRASONIC MYOCARDIAL TAGGING

摘要

The present invention relates to an ultrasonic myocardial tagging and imaging system (30), in which an ultrasonic contrast agent, e.g. microbubbles, is introduced to the myocardial area and allowed to circulate. Then a high-MI pressure field is applied to selectively destroy regions of the contrast agent in a known geometry so as to create a "tag" (102) comprising a predetermined pattern of non-echogenic regions (102b) and echogenic regions (102a). Movement of the tag (102) relative to the myocardium (100) is tracked so as to monitor movement and/or de formation of the wall tissue and assess myocardial viability.