title: Myocardial contrast echocardiography evolving as a clinically feasible technique for accurate, rapid, and safe assessment of myocardial perfusion: the evidence so far.
abstract: Intravenous myocardial contrast echocardiography (MCE) is a recently developed technique for assessment of myocardial perfusion. Up to now, many studies have demonstrated that the sensitivity and specificity of qualitative assessment of myocardial perfusion by MCE in patients with acute and chronic ischemic heart disease are comparable with other techniques such as cardiac scintigraphy and dobutamine stress echocardiography. Furthermore, quantitative parameters of myocardial perfusion derived from MCE correlate well with the current clinical standard for this purpose, positron emission tomography. Myocardial contrast echocardiography provides a promising and valuable tool for assessment of myocardial perfusion. Although MCE has been primarily performed for medical research, its implementation in routine clinical care is evolving. This article is intended to give an overview of the current status of MCE.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. pa.dijkmans@vumc.nl
authors.forename: Pieter A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Dijkmans
authors.forename: Roxy
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Senior
authors.forename: Harald
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Becher
authors.forename: Thomas R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Porter
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: Cees A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Visser
authors.forename: Otto
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Kamp
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D003326:Coronary Circulation; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D004452:Echocardiography / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000592:standards* / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D013577:Syndrome