European Journal of Echocardiography Advance Access originally published online on September 22, 2009
European Journal of Echocardiography 2009 10(8):956-960; doi:10.1093/ejechocard/jep112
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Analysis of regional wall motion during contrast-enhanced dobutamine stress echocardiography: effect of contrast imaging settings
1 Cardiology Department, UZ Brussel, Vrije Universiteit van Brussel, Laarbeeklaan, 101, B-1090 Brussels, Belgium
2 Cardiology Department, CHU Sart Tilman, Université de Liège, Belgium
Received 27 April 2009; accepted after revision 20 August 2009; online publish-ahead-of-print 22 September 2009.
* Corresponding author. Tel: +32 496468501; fax: +32 2 387 30 65. E-mail address: bcosyns{at}skynet.be
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Abstract |
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Aims: Myocardial contrast perfusion echocardiography (MCE) allows simultaneous assessment of perfusion and function. However, low frame rate during MCE may reduce the viewer's ability to discern contractile dysfunction. This study sought to compare MCE and left ventricular opacification (LVO) settings with regard to wall motion abnormalities (WMA) at rest and during dobutamine stress echocardiography (DSE).
Methods and results: In 50 patients scheduled for coronary angiography and with poor baseline image quality, MCE and LVO were performed during DSE. Regional wall motion was assessed and inter-observer agreement was determined for each imaging modality. The endocardial border score index was similar for both modalities. The wall motion score index (WMSCI) at peak stress using MCE was well correlated with WMSCI obtained with LVO (r2 = 0.9, P < 0.001). However, WMSCI at peak stress was underestimated by MCE (1.66 ± 0.58 with DSE-LVO vs. 1.535 ± 0.50 with DSE-MCE; P < 0.001). Inter-observer agreement on the presence of WMA was 0.65 for MCE and 0.67 for LVO at peak stress.
Conclusion: Myocardial contrast perfusion echocardiography provides equal endocardial border delineation compared with LVO modality. Although the inter-observer agreement is slightly higher with LVO compared with MCE, it is not significantly different with MCE at peak stress. Despite the similar improvement in endocardial border delineation, LVO settings allow the detection of more WMA than MCE at peak stress, leading to a significantly higher accuracy for the detection of ischaemia in patients suspected of coronary artery disease when only wall motion is taken into account.
Keywords: Contrast echocardiography; Left ventricular function; Stress echocardiography; Myocardial perfusion