Ambient Pressure Evaluation Through Sub-Harmonic Response of Chirp-Sonicated Microbubbles

The sub-harmonic response generated by oscillating ultrasound contrast microbubbles has been proven to be a potentially efficient and effective measure for non-invasive blood pressure evaluation. In this work, an improved approach to ambient pressure measurement is proposed, and the general principle underlying this approach is the combination of sub-harmonic responses of microbubbles with a chirp excitation technique. Agreement between theoretical and experimental studies indicates that compared with sinusoidal excitation, the chirp technique is beneficial in that it produces bubble sub-harmonics with higher amplitudes and lower generation thresholds and thus offers better sensitivity for ambient pressure evaluations. Studies that took the chirp parameters (e.g., central frequency, bandwidth and pulse length) into account were also carried out to determine an optimized routine for the proposed method.