Myocardial Contrast Echocardiography: Ready for the prime time

Abstract

The advancement in imaging technology coupled with development of ultrasound contrast agents (UCAs) has made it possible to detect and localize coronary artery disease at the bedside. Despite plethora of data published1, commercially available agents are still approved only for left ventricular opacification; but the true potential of these unique red blood cell tracers resides in the non-invasive assessment of myocardial perfusion during myocardial contrast echocardiography and that too with high spatial and temporal resolution than any other non-invasive bedside technique.