Contrast echocardiography: Fulfilling its promise

The development of microbubble contrast agents has improved the ability of echocardiography to qualitatively assess LV function and structural abnormalities, and it has essentially removed the impediment of a suboptimal acoustic window. Furthermore, the use of contrast significantly improves the ability of echocardiography to provide quantitative measures of LV volume and ejection fraction. With the advent of myocardial perfusion imaging, echocardiography can be used to assess flow-function relations, evaluate microvascular integrity in acute and chronic settings, and not only determine the presence of coronary stenoses but quantify their physiologic significance and severity. Thus, MCE truly has the ability to be a one-stop for noninvasive imaging.