Contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (CEUS): Principles and contrast agents

Ultrasonography is an imaging technique universally employed in veterinary medicine. lit has many advantages, such as high availability, non-invasiveness, short examination time, no anesthesia, and low cost, but also some drawbacks, like low specificity. To overcome these limitations, ultrasound contrast agents (UCAs) and specific ultrasound contrast techniques have been developed. The application of UCAs and specific sonographic contrast techniques increase the specificity and sensitivity of ultrasound examination. Nowadays the new contrast-specific imaging techniques enable the separation of the linear tissue signal from the non-linear microbubble signal, which, combined with the introduction of second-generation UCAs, makes contrast-enhanced ultrasonography a very important diagnostic tool.