# Long-Coded Pulses in Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound Imaging for Improved Endocardial Border Delineation

> **NIH NIH R03** · MAYO CLINIC ROCHESTER · 2020 · $79,500

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Coronary Heart Disease (CHD), the leading cause of death among cardiovascular diseases, affects
millions of Americans. It is of paramount clinical significance to deliver rapid and accurate CHD
diagnosis. Echocardiography provides safe, cost-effective, reproducible, and real-time heart
assessment which makes echocardiography a first-line cardiac imaging modality and is routinely used
in clinic for CHD evaluation. However, during echocardiography diagnosis, inadequate heart
visualization often occurs in obese patients with high Body Mass Index (i.e., BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2).
Clinicians commonly employ contrast echocardiography in these patients to improve heart imaging
quality. However, contrast echocardiography requires low incident acoustic pressure to avoid contrast
microbubble disruption, resulting in unreliable heart assessment in deeper regions. Consequently,
CHD can be inaccurately evaluated in obese patients. To fill this gap, a novel long-coded pulse (LCP)
sequence has been recently developed by our group with significantly improved contrast and
penetration over current state-of-the-art contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) imaging methods. We
will continue this work and propose two specific aims in this study:
Specific Aim 1: Advance and optimize the long-coded pulse (LCP) sequence for CEUS
echocardiography. Our preliminary work shows significantly improved contrast (+47%) between the
left ventricle and the myocardial wall, which allows more accurate endocardial border delineation.
This improvement demonstrates the LCP's potential for enhanced heart assessment during CEUS
echocardiography. The LCP sequences will be further developed, enhanced, and optimized for CEUS
echocardiography to pave the way for clinical study in Aim 2.
Specific Aim 2: Conduct a pilot clinical study on coronary heart disease patients using the
LCP-CEUS methods. We will recruit 33 CHD patients (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2) to assess the efficacy of
LCP as compared with state-of-the-art CEUS pulse sequences for improving endocardial border
delineation in obese patients.
Successful completion of the project will lead to a novel contrast echocardiography method for safe,
cost-effective, and more reliable assessment for coronary heart disease in obese patients.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9969503
- **Project number:** 5R03EB027742-02
- **Recipient organization:** MAYO CLINIC ROCHESTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Ping Gong
- **Activity code:** R03 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $79,500
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-07-01 → 2022-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9969503

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9969503, Long-Coded Pulses in Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound Imaging for Improved Endocardial Border Delineation (5R03EB027742-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9969503. Licensed CC0.

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