Bio-imaging of medical devices or surgical retain items in human body is always a challenge. We developed an ultrasound responsive thin film which could be attached to the surface of diversity materials such metal, plastic and glass. The film contains silica hollow shells and poly(cyanoacrylate) matrix. The polymer cross links the particles and bonds the film on medical devices such as surgical tools, medical catheters and other artificial implants. The polymer also blocks the pores in silica shells and keeps air in the hollow space as ultrasound contrast agent. Electric microscope found a domain of polymer and a domain mainly containing hollow shells in the film which indicates a macrophase separation happens during the polymerization. This ultrasound activated film gives strong color Doppler signals with widely used clinic ultrasound equipment. Devices coated with the film can be easily identified in human tissues and organs. The ultrasound signals have good persistence which means they can be located after several hours in tissues. This technology provides a safe, low cost and fast method to locate the biomedical devices in vivo compared to other detection methods such as X-ray, MRI and CT. It has potential applications on small medical device tracking, biopsy marker locating and other implants identification.

Ultrasound activated film for in vivo biomedical marker

251st National Meeting (2016)

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