Clinical Usefulness of Contrast Echocardiography

Abstract

Two-demensional echocardiography is routinely used for evaluation of cardiac function. Visualization of the endocardial border is essential for the assessment of global and regional left ventricular with cardiac disease. SonoVue TM is a microbubble contrast agent that consists of sulfur hexafluoride-filled microbubbles in a phospholipid shell. There were many studies about contrast echocardiographic examination using SonoVue TM contrast agent, and various doses of SonoVue TM were used. To our knowledge, in published veterinary medicine, there was not reported for diagnostic efficient dose of SonoVueTM to evaluate contrast enhanced left ventricular endocardial border delineation (LVEBD). The purpose of this study is to compare the visualization time of LVEBD and find efficient dose of SonoVue TM for using various doses in dogs. Ten healthy Beagles were recruited to the study. Three different doses (0.03 ml/kg, 0.05 ml/ kg and 0.1 ml/kg) of SonoVue TM were injected. Endocardial segments were assigned based on previously established methodology, where by the four-chamber views of the LV were divided into 6 segments. In this study, Contrast enhancement of the LVEBD after each injection was evaluated visually at the time point of overall contrast enhancement (Segmental scoring 5+) in the LV by three investigators in a blind manner. Statistical analysis was performed with SPSS version 14.0. All data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA, the multiple comparison Scheffe test. When data for the three offsite readers were combined, mean durations of useful contrast were 3.54 (± 2.14), 6.15 (± 2.61), and 24.39 (± 11.10) seconds for the 0.03 ml/kg, 0.05 ml/kg, and 0.1 ml/kg SonoVue TM doses, respectively. After injection of contrast agent, there were no significant change in side effects such as urticaria, angioedema, hypersensitivity reactions, and digestive system disorders. This study suggests that efficient dose of SonoVue TM contrast agent for improvement of the left ventricle visualization is 0.1 ml/kg. The duration of useful enhancement of LVEBD and the reproducibility were also the highest at the 0.1 ml/kg dosage.