Can contrast echocardiography elucidate myocardial physiology?

Myocardial contrast echocardiography.

MCE has evolved from a laboratory tool to a clinical procedure. It would be wrong to consider it merely another tool for imaging of myocardial perfusion. As discussed, it allows physicians to bring physiology and pathophysiology to the bedside, providing a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms of abnormal findings in individual patients. MCE can provide quantitative measurements tha...

3D Myocardial Contrast Echocardiography

Myocardial contrast echocardiography can depict thebesian vein outflow in humans.

17. ventricular pulsus alternans during acute increase in afterload during balloon pulmonic valvuloplasty. Am J Cardiol 1987; 601412-3. Gleason WL, Braunwald E. Studies on Starling’s law of the heart. VI. Relationship between left ventricular end-diastolic volume and stroke volume in man with observations on the mechanism of pulsus alternans. Circulation 1962;25:841-7. Lab MJ, Lee JA. Changes i...

Contrast echocardiography in myocardial infarction

The contrast agents used in ultrasound are approved for several clinical situations. New echocardiographic techniques, such as harmonic imaging and power pulse inversion imaging, can improve the visualization of microbubbles. In this article we discuss the early development of contrast echocardiography, new technologies that help improve image acquisition and its practical role in the assessmen...

Stress echocardiography and myocardial contrast echocardiography in viability assessment.

[1] Packer M. The neurohumoral hypothesis: a theory to explain the mechanism of disease progression in heart failure. J Am Coll Cardiol 1992; 20: 248-54. [2] Andrews R, Charlesworth A, Evans A, Cowley AJ. A doubleblind, cross-over comparison of the effects of a loop diuretic and a dopamine receptor agonist as first line therapy in patients with mild congestive heart failure. Eur Heart J 1997; 1...