Article Text
Abstract
Contrast echocardiography is a family of ultrasound-based procedures, whereby acoustic enhancing agents, usually microbubbles, are administered by intravenous route and detected in order to improve diagnostic performance. This review describes: (1) the agents that have been designed for diagnostic imaging, (2) current clinical applications where either left ventricular opacification or microvascular perfusion imaging with myocardial contrast echocardiography have been demonstrated to provide incremental information to non-contrast echocardiography and (3) future diagnostic and therapeutic applications of contrast ultrasound that rely on unique compositional design of ultrasound-enhancing agents.
- echocardiography
- advanced cardiac imaging
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Footnotes
Twitter @jlindnerMD
Contributors I have been responsible for all content.
Funding JRL is supported by grants R01-HL078610, R01-HL130046 and P51-OD011092 from the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA, and grant 14-14NSBRI1-0025 from NASA.
Competing interests The author receives grant support for investigator-initiated research from Lantheus and GE Healthcare.
Patient and public involvement Patients and/or the public were not involved in the design, or conduct, or reporting, or dissemination plans of this research.
Patient consent for publication Not required.
Provenance and peer review Commissioned; externally peer reviewed.