Technology ID
TAB-4608

Intralipid as a Contrast Agent to Enhance Subsurface Blood Flow Imaging

E-Numbers
E-210-2012-0
Lead Inventor
Du, Congwu (State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook)
Co-Inventors
Pan, Yingtian (State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook)
Volkow, Nora (National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA))
Applications
Medical Devices
Diagnostics
Therapeutic Areas
Radiology
Ophthalmology
Oncology
Neurology
Cardiology
Development Stages
Investigational Device Exemption - Feasibility Study
Research Products
Computational models/software
Lead IC
NIAAA

This technology includes a blood flow imaging method that allows for a higher density of smaller particles to be detected. Current imaging methods that are based on Doppler measurements are limited by the discontinuity in the capillary flow in the space between red blood cells. The core technology is to use a scattering agent to enhance capillary flow or microcirculation. This technology has been tested for optical coherence Doppler tomography, but can be expended to any Doppler based flow imaging techniques such as laser speckle imaging. The fundamental discovery or idea is that in capillaries, red blood cells (RBC) are moving in a burst mode with high latency (large time gap between bursts). By injection of micro beads such as intralipid, the moving backscatterers will fill the gap and flow with RBCs. Since they are smaller, e.g., 1-3um, they are strong backscatterers that enhance backscattering signals and their motion with RBCs will enhance the Doppler detection (reduced latency).

Commercial Applications
The preclinical and clinical impacts can be profound, ranging from physiological and functional studies of neurovascular hemodynamics, pharmacological effects on the brain, to imaging tumor vasculature (microenvironment), surgical confirmation of curtailing of tumor vascular supply during brain surgery (replacing flushing ICG in neurosurgery), assessment of wounding healing (noninvasive imaging of angiogeneisis), and OCT imaging of vascular abnormality in retina.

Competitive Advantages
This is a new and safe way (i.e., via a natural contrast agent) to enhance the image of subsurface vasculature and blood flow, especially in the microvasculature circulation.
Licensing Contact:
Shmilovich, Michael
shmilovm@nih.gov