Assessment of myocardial perfusion with contrast echocardiography at rest and with stress: An emerging technology

Over the past 20 years, there has been considerable progress in the field of myocardial contrast echocardiography (MCE). What began as a modality limited to selected cardiac catherization laboratories may soon become a rapid and accurate bedside tool for assessing myocardial perfusion. Because MCE via intravenous contrast injection can be performed at the bedside and avoids the use of radiation exposure, it offers multiple potential clinical applications, including assessment of reperfusion after fibrinolytic therapy, postinfarction risk area, and myocardial viability. The addition of perfusion data to wall motion may augment the results of stress echocardiography. This report describes the technologic advances in contrast agents and related imaging technologies that enable myocardial perfusion to be assessed by echocardiography. In addition, the latest clinical studies of myocardial perfusion by MCE are presented.