NWO grant 900,000 euros for Chris de Korte

30 April 2019

Chris de Korte obtained an Open Technology Program (OTP) grant from NWO Engineering and Applied Sciences for his work on vascular flow imaging using ultrasound.

 In this project, the emphasis is on ultrafast ultrasound imaging (10.000 frames per second) at high frequencies (15-25 MHz) for improved quantification of the velocity vector in the carotid artery. Plaque development in the carotid is considered to be associated with disturbed velocity profiles and with the proposed method these disturbances can be quantified much more accurate. Furthermore, ultrafast imaging will be combined with dedicated gas-filled microbubbles that act as ultrasound contrast agents. This part of the project will be carried out in collaboration with Michel Versluis at the University of Twente where professor de Korte also has a position. Professor Versluis of the Physics of Fluids group of this University is an expert in the field of ultrasound contrast agents and developed a method to control the size of the microbubbles. The ultrasound signal can be fully adjusted to this size in order to increase the contrast several orders of magnitude. This opens the possibility to also investigate blood velocity profiles in stented carotids and in abdominal aorta aneurisms. The project is a collaboration with Philips, the Netherlands (ultrasound equipment), Bracco (ultrasound contrast agents), and Medtronic (supplier of stents). The total project budget is more than 900 keuros and one Postdoc and 2 PhD students will be employed on this project.

Chris is a member of the theme Vascular damage.