Feasibility of Performing Real-Time Myocardial Contrast Echocardiography During Clinical Dobutamine Stress Echocardiography in Technically Difficult Patients

Abstract

Myocardial contrast echocardiography (MCE) has emerged as an alternative to nuclear medicine perfusion imaging. The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of performing and the interpretation of MCE for perfusion imaging in a clinical laboratory. The study population consisted of 150 consecutive patients referred for dobutamine stress echocardiography (DSE) to determine the presence of myocardial ischemia. Echocardiographic perfusion images were digitized at rest and at peak dobutamine infusion for later review. A total of 12 myocardial segments in the apical four and two chamber views were graded as no perfusion, minimal perfusion, definite perfusion, or not able to evaluate. Of 3600 possible segments, a total of 2926 (81%) were able to be graded at either rest or peak dobutamine. At rest, 79% of segments were graded for perfusion (1419 of 1800 segments). At peak dobutamine infusion, 84% of segments were graded for perfusion (1507 of 1800 segments). The results demonstrate that MCE is clinically feasible to perform and interpret during DSE on a routine daily basis.