Contrast echocardiography displays increased subendocardial perfusion after nitroglycerin administration.

A mechanism proposed to contribute to the antianginal effect of nitroglycerin is a redistribution of coronary blood flow to the subendocardium. Contrast echocardiography combines ultrasound with echogenic contrast agents to assess regional myocardial perfusion. This study aims to assess the effect of nitroglycerin on myocardial transmural perfusion with contrast echocardiography in humans. Nine patients scheduled for coronary angiography received 300 microg intracoronary nitroglycerin. Contrast echocardiographic studies were performed before and immediately after the administration of intracoronary nitroglycerin. Videodensitometric analysis was performed off-line to measure subendocardial and subepicardial opacification. Subendocardial opacification greater than subepicardial opacification increased from six of 13 patients before nitroglycerin administration to 11 of 13 after nitroglycerin administration (p <0.05). Similarly, these observations increased from nine of 13 patients to 13 of 13 after nitroglycerin administration during diastole (p <0.05). Contrast echocardiography demonstrates increased subendocardial perfusion after the administration of nitroglycerin in these patients.

Optimizing albunex in the left ventricle: an analysis of the technical parameters of four ultrasound systems in canines and humans.

Albunex, an intravascular ultrasound contrast agent, has been used clinically to enhance echocardiographic images. The purpose of this study if (1) to determine whether varying the settings on commercially available ultrasound machines has an effect on left ventricular opacification after intravenously administered Albunex and if there is an effect on left ventricular opacification and (2) to determine the ideal settings for each ultrasound scanner. Six canine hearts were imaged with 1 ml injections of intravenously administered Albunex while varying the transducer frequency, preprocessing curves, postprocessing curves, and dynamic range on a variety of ultrasound units. Subsequently 50 human subjects underwent imaging with the various machines while the dynamic range and transducer frequencies were altered. All subjects received two or three intravenous injections of 10 ml Albunex. The opacification of the left ventricular cavitary images in both parts of the study were interpreted visually on a scale of 0 to 4 (0 = none, 1 = trace, 2 = moderate, 3 = dense, and 4 = ideal) by four observers. The maximum compression and transducer frequency of 3.5 MHz showed significant improvement of left ventricular opacification in both canines and humans. These studies have shown that (1) varying the ultrasound unit's parameters affects the quality of left ventricular imaging when Albunex is used to enhance the image, and (2) higher compression and a transducer frequency of 3.5 MHz tend to enhance Albunex images of canine and human hearts.