The Feasibility and Repeatability of Ultrasound Microbubble Angiography in the Determination of Pulmonary Blood Volume in Animal Models

  Objective  To investigate the feasibility of measuring pulmonary blood volume (PBV) by ultrasound microbubble angiography, which may provide a feasible method for further detection of PBV changes.

  Methods  Ultrasound microbubble angiography was used to calculate the PBV by detecting pulmonary transit time (PTT) and heart rate-normalized pulmonary transit time (nPTT). To evaluate the consensus degree based on the intra-, inter-observer and within-day variation in order to determine the repeatability. The method was used for acute left ventricular dysfunction models to determine the feasibility as well.

  Results  The Bland-Atlman plots showed good intra-observer, within-day, and inter-observer consistency of measurement results. Application in acute left ventricular dysfunction models showed that, compared with the control, left heart failure models had higher PTT, nPTT and PBV (P<0.05).

  Conclusion  Detection of PTT/nPTT to calculate PBV by ultrasound microbubble angiography is simple and feasible, it is not easy to produce miscarriage of justice, with good intra- and inter-observer consistency of repeatability test results. The method has certain feasibility.