| 摘要 |
PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method for producing a microsphere having excellent stability and compression resistance, by improving a conventional method for producing a microsphere and using an ultrasound or mechanical cavitation process. SOLUTION: This method for producing a microsphere of a capsulated gas useful as an ultrasound imaging agent comprises (a) a process for preparing an aqueous solution of a protein capable of being thermally denatured at a temperature to attain an initial denaturation temperature in mechanical emulsification to be carried out next, (b) a process for joining a solution to a gas, (c) a process for emulsifying the mixture of the protein solution and the gas by mechanically shearing the mixture to form a suspension composed of microbubbles having an average diameter in the range of 1μm to about 10μm and (d) a process for subjecting the suspension to mechanical cavitation to denature the protein, precipitating the protein on an interface between the gas and the solution to capsulate the microbubbles of the gas and to form the objective microsphere. |
