Stabilized microbubble compositions

Patent 5639443 Issued on June 17, 1997. Estimated Expiration Date:

March 16, 2015. Estimated Expiration Date is calculated based on simple USPTO term provisions. It does not account for terminal disclaimers, term adjustments, failure to pay maintenance fees, or other factors which might affect the term of a patent.

Abstract Claims Description Full Text

Patent References

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Inventors

Application

No. 405447 filed on 03/16/1995

US Classes:

424/9.52, Stable gas bubbles containing or intentional solubilized gas containing424/9.5Ultrasound contrast agent

Examiners

Primary: Burn, Brian M.
Assistant: Cebulak, Mary C.

Attorney, Agent or Firm

Knobbe, Martens, Olson & Bear

Foreign Patent References

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International Class

A61K 049/00

Abstract

A microbubble preparation formed of a plurality of microbubbles comprising a first gas and a second gas surrounded by a membrane such as a surfactant, wherein the first gas and the second gas are present in a molar ratio of from about 1:100 to about 1000:1, and wherein the first gas has a vapor pressure of at least about (760-x) mm Hg at 37° C., where x is the vapor pressure of the second gas at 37° C., and wherein the vapor pressure of each of the first and second gases is greater than about 75 mm Hg at 37° C.; also disclosed are methods for preparing microbubble compositions, including compositions that rapidly shrink from a first average diameter to a second average diameter less than about 75% of the first average diameter and are stabilized at the second average diameter; kits for preparing microbubbles; and methods for using such microbubbles as ultrasound contrast agents.

Other References

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