Individual lipid encapsulated microbubble radial oscillations: Effects of fluid viscosity.

Ultrasound-stimulated microbubble dynamics have been shown to be dependent on intrinsic bubble properties, including size and shell characteristics. The effect of the surrounding environment on microbubble response, however, has been less investigated. In particular, microbubble optimization studies are generally conducted in water/saline, characterized by a 1 cP viscosity, for application in the vasculature (i.e., 4 cP). In this study, ultra-high speed microscopy was employed to investigate fluid viscosity effects on phospholipid encapsulated microbubble oscillations at 1 MHz, using a single, eight-cycle pulse at peak negative pressures of 100 and 250 kPa. Microbubble oscillations were shown to be affected by fluid viscosity in a size- and pressure-dependent manner. In general, the oscillation amplitudes exhibited by microbubbles between 3 and 6 μm in 1 cP fluid were larger than in 4 cP fluid, reaching a maximum of 1.7-fold at 100 kPa for microbubbles 3.8 μm in diameter and 1.35-fold at 250 kPa for micro...