Ultrafast Ultrasound Imaging for Micro-Nanomotors: A Phantom Study

Recently, micro-nanomotors (MNMs) that effectively convert diverse energy sources into movement and force have received tremendous attention. Due to the ability to be navigated into hard-to-reach tissues in the human body, MNMs have the potential for broad biomedical applications, e.g., targeted drug delivery, cell manipulation, and minimally invasive microsurgeries etc. However, despite the great promise, existing imaging technologies are insufficient for imaging and tracking MNMs in deep tissue. To overcome such a limitation, we apply the ultrafast ultrasound method for real-time MNMs imaging in a tissue-mimicking phantom. In addition, advanced detecting, localization and tracking algorithms are used to display the position, trajectory, orientation and velocity of the MNMs. Results of the phantom study demonstrate the feasibility of ultrafast ultrasound imaging as a sufficient technique to image and track MNMs in deep tissue with high spatiotemporal resolution, deep penetration and high sensitivity.