Contrast doppler echocardiography

A new technique in the scope of cardiac ultrasound — "contrast Doppler echocardiography" — is introduced and its first clinical applications are presen¬ted. The presence of contrast material within the right heart cavities following the peripheral vein injection is easily recognized by characteristic Doppler signal changes. This knowledge was used to detect a small amount of contrast passing through atrial (ASD) or ventricular septal defect (VSD) towards the left heart cavities despite the dominant left-to-right shunting. The high sensitivity of contrast Doppler in those conditions was presented by correct diagnosis of 10 ASD and 3 VSD. Besides that, the other application of this technique is in selected cases of tricuspid regurgitation.
Therefore, the combination of both pulsed Doppler and contrast echo-in-vestigation seems to be advantageous in the diagnosis of the mentioned diseases. However, further research in this very specialized method is required.