Role of myocardial contrast echocardiography during nonsurgical septal reduction therapy for hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy.
OBJECTIVE
This study was undertaken to evaluate the ability of myocardial contrast echocardiography (MCE) to guide the targeted delivery of ethanol during nonsurgical septal reduction therapy (NSRT) and to assess the relation between the MCE risk area and infarct size determined by enzymatic and radionuclide methods.


BACKGROUND
NSRT with intracoronary ethanol is a new promising treatment for patients with hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (HOCM). Proper localization and quantification of the septal infarct before ethanol injection are highly desirable. MCE can provide accurate delineation of the vascular territory of the coronary arteries.


METHODS
Twenty-nine patients with HOCM and maximal medical therapy underwent NSRT. The left ventricular outflow tract (LVOT) gradient by Doppler echocardiography at baseline was 53 +/- 16 mm Hg (mean +/- SD). Before NSRT, MCE was performed in all patients with intracoronary sonicated albumin (Albunex). Diluted sonicated albumin (Albunex) was selectively injected into the septal perforator arteries during simultaneous transthoracic imaging. Immediately after MCE, ethanol was injected into the same vessel. Plasma total creatine kinase (CK), total CK-MB fraction and CK-MB fraction subforms were measured at baseline and serially for 36 h.


RESULTS
LVOT gradient decreased to 12 +/- 6 mm Hg (p < 0.001) after NSRT. Accurate mapping of the vascular beds of the septal perforators was successfully attained in all patients by MCE. Furthermore, the MCE risk area correlated well with peak CK (r = 0.79, p < 0.001). Six weeks after NSRT, 23 patients underwent myocardial perfusion studies performed with single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). Mean SPECT septal perfusion defect size involved 9.5 +/- 6% of the left ventricle and correlated well with MCE area (r = 0.7), with no statistically significant difference between the risk area estimated by MCE and that by SPECT.


CONCLUSIONS
Estimation of the size of the septal vascular territory with MCE is accurate, safe and feasible in essentially all patients during NSRT. MCE can delineate the perfusion bed of the septal perforators and can predict the infarct size that follows ethanol injection.
Department of Medicine, Section of Cardiology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 77030, USA. sherifn@bcm.tmc.edu
S F
SF
Nagueh
N M
NM
Lakkis
Z X
ZX
He
K J
KJ
Middleton
D
D
Killip
W A
WA
Zoghbi
M A
MA
Quiñones
R
R
Roberts
M S
MS
Verani
N S
NS
Kleiman
W H
WH
Spencer
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000418:Albumins; D002312:Cardiomyopathy, Hypertrophic / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000188:drug therapy*; D003287:Contrast Media; D003402:Creatine Kinase / Q000097:blood; D004452:Echocardiography; D004621:Embolization, Therapeutic / Q000379:methods*; D000431:Ethanol / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D005260:Female; D006346:Heart Septum / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000187:drug effects*; D006801:Humans; D007527:Isoenzymes; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon; D016277:Ventricular Function, Left / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology
D000418:Albumins; C060687:Albunex; D003287:Contrast Media; D007527:Isoenzymes; D000431:Ethanol; D003402:Creatine Kinase