1072: Placental Characteristics of Vascular Perfusion with Contrast Agent (SonoVueTM) in Late Pregnant Rat

The study was to investigate the ability of the contrast pulse sequencing technology (CPS) and SonoVueTM (a new contrast agent) to delineate placental angioarchitecture and observe whether the time-intensity curves would reflect the feature of vascular perfusion in placental central arterial canal and intervillous space. Forty late pregnant Wistar rats were selected and divided into two experimental groups, i.e. control group (n=20) injected with 2.0ml/kg physiologic saline solution, and treatment group (n=20) injected with 10mg/ml SonoVue™ 2.0ml/kg One of placentas was randomly selected for examination by contrast enhanced ultrasonography in all pregnant rats. TI curves were generated with the region of interest placed only over the placental central arterial canal and intervillous space respectively by using offline software apparatus-Paragon release (revision 8.0) in six rats which were injection with SonoVue™. Intravascular injection of SonoVueTM was capable of delineating the vascular architecture of the placental villous tree of rat. No enhancement was seen after saline solution injections. Time-intensity curves generated by placement of the region of interest over the placental central arterial canal produced a relatively rapid rise and a more gradual decay of signal intensity, while placement of a similar sized region of interest over the intervillous space produced a relatively lower and shorter effect. Contrast-enhanced ultrasonography limpidly demonstrates the characteristics of placental vascular perfusion in a rat model. The time-intensity curves reflect the difference in the characteristics of vascular perfusion in placental central arterial canal and intervillous space.