Myocardial Ultrasonic Tissue Characterization In A Case Of Myocardial Contusion

Myocardial ultrasonic tissue characterization has been used recently for evaluating myocardial disease. However, it has been unknown whether myocardial ultrasonic tissue characterization is useful for detection of myocardial cotusion. We treated a patient with myocardial contusion in whom we observed changes in cyclic variation of myocardial ultrasonic integrated backscatter. A 61-year-old male was transported to Osaka Prefectural Nakakawachi Medical Center of Acute Medicine after suffering blunt anterior chest trauma due to motor vehicle accident. Second hospital day after the trauma, myocardial contusion showing diffuse left ventricular hypokinesia was diagnosed by electrocardiogram and echocardiogram. After diagnosing myocardial contusion, we evaluated the myocardial ultrasonic tissue characterization with an integrated backscatter imaging system. We analyzed cyclic variation of the integrated backscatter. Cyclic variation was measured in both the anterior and posterior myocardium at the left ventricle. The values of cyclic variation were consistent with recovery of left ventricular function. Thus, we conclude that integrated backscatter examination is a new technique that may be useful in the evaluating myocardial contusion.