Key result
Contrast echocardiography improves left ventricular opacification and endocardial border definition, enhancing the assessment of regional wall motion and myocardial perfusion during stress testing.
This review outlines the imaging principles and clinical applications of contrast echocardiography to facilitate its introduction into routine clinical practice.
Myocardial contrast echocardiography for perfusion remains investigational; leaves open routine adoption pending higher-level evidence.
Contrast echocardiography has an established role for enhancement of the right heart Doppler signals, the detection of intra-cardiac shunts, and most recently for left ventricular cavity opacification (LVO). The use of intravenously administered micro-bubbles to traverse the myocardial microcirculation in order to outline myocardial viability and perfusion has been the source of research studies for a number of years. Despite the enthusiasm of investigators, myocardial contrast echocardiography (MCE) has not attained routine clinical use and LV opacification during stress has been less widely adopted than the data would support. The purpose of this review is to facilitate an understanding of the involved imaging technologies that have made this technique more feasible for clinical practice, and to guide its introduction into the practice of the non-expert user.
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Moir et al. (2004) conducted a review in Coronary artery disease. Contrast echocardiography vs. Standard echocardiography was evaluated. Contrast echocardiography improves left ventricular opacification and endocardial border definition, enhancing the assessment of regional wall motion and myocardial perfusion during stress testing.
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