• Nan Jiang, Bin Xie, Xin Zhang, Min He, Kequan Li, Jin Bai, Zhibiao Wang, Jia He, and Lian Zhang.
• State Key Laboratory of Ultrasound Engineering in Medicine Co-founded by Chongqing and the Ministry of Science and Technology, Chongqing Key Laboratory of Ultrasound in Medicine and Engineering, College of Biomedical Engineering, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, 400016, China, 350590169@qq.com.
• Cardiovasc Intervent Radiol. 2014 Oct 1; 37 (5): 1321-8.

PurposeTo evaluate the role of the ultrasound contrast agent SonoVue in enhancing the ablation effects of ultrasound-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) on uterine fibroids.MethodsEighty patients with solitary uterine fibroids at a single center were randomly assigned to a control or SonoVue group. Of these, 40 were treated using HIFU alone; 40 who were pretreated with SonoVue received a bolus before the HIFU procedure. All patients underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan before and after HIFU treatment.ResultsThe post-HIFU MRI showed the nonperfused volume (NPV) in all of the treated uterine fibroids; the mean fractional ablation (NPV ratio) was 90.4 ± 8.3 % (range 66.4-100 %) in the SonoVue group and 82.8 ± 13.3 % (range 53.4-100 %) in the control group. The frequency of massive gray-scale changes that occurred during HIFU was greater in the group that received SonoVue than the group that did not. The average sonication time to reach massive gray-scale changes was significantly shorter in the group receiving SonoVue than the group without SonoVue. The acoustic energy for treating 1 mm(3) of uterine fibroid was less in the SonoVue group than the control group. No any major complication occurred in this study.ConclusionBased on the results of this randomized controlled trial, SonoVue could be safely used to enhance the effects of HIFU treatment for uterine fibroids.

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