Key Points
- Echo Contrast 2024 took place January 18-19 in Rotterdam.
- The event featured several invited lectures on focused ultrasound and a notable young investigator competition.
The 29th European Symposium on Ultrasound Contrast Imaging, also known as the Echo Contrast meeting, took place on January 18-19, 2024, in Rotterdam. The conference gathered approximately 200 clinicians, engineers, and scientists from various specialties, including cardiology, radiology, and oncology, to share the latest advances in ultrasound contrast imaging and therapeutic applications of ultrasound contrast agents.
“While still quite dynamic, this symposium feels more intimate than the larger meetings and allows ample time to socialize and share ideas,” said Meaghan O’Reilly, PhD, the Canada Research Chair in Biomedical Ultrasound at Sunnybrook Research Institute, who attended the meeting. “It was standing room only in what seemed like a large venue, and the engaging presentations covered a wide range of focused ultrasound applications.”
The full abstracts for the presentations described below are available in the meeting program.
Day One Presentations
The meeting began with two translational research sessions titled “Therapy: Toward Clinical Use.” The following invited lectures were centered on focused ultrasound technology:
- Christy Holland, PhD, (University of Cincinnati) presented “Ultrasound Image–Guided Catheter-Directed Therapy to Treat Peripheral Arterial Disease.” She introduced novel echogenic liposomes designed for stroke and vascular disease applications and described studies demonstrating their diagnostic and therapeutic potential.
- Meaghan O’Reilly, PhD, (Sunnybrook Research Institute) presented “Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Focused Ultrasound–Mediated Blood-Brain Barrier (BBB) Opening in Grey and White Matter.” Her study, which was funded by the Focused Ultrasound Foundation, sought to characterize BBB opening differences between grey and white matter following focused ultrasound and to correlate drug delivery with MRI measures of BBB opening.
- Alfred Yu, PhD, (University of Waterloo) presented “Life After a Poke: How Can Sonoporation Disrupt Cellular Development?” He described his investigations into how sonoporation disrupts cellular development beyond the bioeffects observed in other sonicated and unsonoporated cells.
After lunch, Elisa Konofagou, PhD, from Columbia University, then delivered the prestigious Thorax Lecture, where she presented “Immunomodulation and Drug Delivery using Focused Ultrasound and Microbubbles Toward the Treatment of Neurodegenerative Disease and Brain Tumors.” The talk provided a comprehensive overview of Dr. Konofagou’s work in neurodegenerative diseases and also covered several applications for cancer.
Day one concluded with sessions that centered on new directions in imaging and clinical imaging.
Day Two Presentations
Day two began with parallel sessions of short oral presentations (The focused ultrasound–specific presentations are listed below). A session on bubble technology included five presentations, and that was followed by the Dutch Heart Foundation Lecture.
For the Clinical Therapy session, Michael Canney, PhD, (Carthera) was invited to present recent results from the company’s ongoing clinical trials using a nine-element implantable device for BBB opening. The talk underscored the device’s advancements and therapeutic potential.
Young Investigator Competition
The symposium’s young investigator competition featured six impressive presentations on ultrasound-activated cavitation nuclei for therapy and drug delivery. The winner, Bram Meijlink from the Erasmus group, presented “Microbubble-Mediated Endothelial Cell-Cell Contact Opening is Induced by F-actin Stress Fiber Severing and Recoil,” which was a mechanistic study on how bubbles create cell contact opening. Young investigators must be within five years of their PhD to enter the competition, which awards one thousand Euros for the best research.
“The competition was a nice celebration of the up-and-coming young scientists,” said Dr. O’Reilly. “The scoring from the secret jury was reported to be close, and all of the presentations were exceptional.”
Abstracts and Posters
There was a nice format for the poster sessions, wherein each presenter was given a two-minute power pitch with slides before the poster hall was opened for morning coffee and attendee circulation. “It was quite a nice way to attract people to the different posters,” said Dr. O’Reilly. “Poster session B also included an entire section on cancer therapy.”
The following posters and abstracts were found by searching the 2024 Meeting Program for “focused ultrasound and “HIFU.” (Please search for your own key words of interest.)
- Differential Sensitivity of F98 Glioma Tumors and Adjacent Healthy Spinal Cord Tissue in Response to Focused Ultrasound and Microbubbles, a poster presented by Mahsa Mokhlesabadi
- Uptake and Microdistribution of Doxorubicin in Murine Tumors Treated with SonoVue and Focused Ultrasound, a poster presented by Veronica Nordlund
- Jetting behaviour of ultrasound-driven microbubbles in contact with a cell monolayer by Marco Cattaneo et al. from ETH Zürich and University Hospital Zürich
- Comprehensive assessment of blood-brain barrier opening and sterile inflammatory response: Unraveling the therapeutic window by Jane J. Song et al. from the University of Colorado Boulder
- Quantitative evaluation of anti-biofilm cavitation activity seeded from microbubbles or solid gas-stabilizing nuclei by passive acoustic mapping by Sara B. Keller et al. from the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of Oxford
- Characterisation of Perfluoropentane Droplets: Nitric Oxide Capacity and Acoustic Droplet Vaporisation Threshold by Christopher K. Campbell et al. from the University of Oxford
- Ultrasound-targeted microbubble cavitation-mediated blood brain barrier opening for drug delivery in Alzheimer’s disease by Grace E. Conway et al. from the University of Pittsburgh
- Microbubble-mediated mechanical removal of oral biofilms in-vitro by D. De Grandi et al. from the University of Oxford
The Foundation thanks Meaghan O’Reilly, PhD, for her assistance with this meeting report.
The 30th European Symposium on Ultrasound Contrast Imaging will take place in Rotterdam January 16–17, 2025.