Safety and Efficacy of Commercially Available Ultrasound Contrast Agents for Rest and Stress Echocardiography

Abstract

Despite recent warnings regarding echocardiographic contrast, our findings indicate it is a safe and useful diagnostic tool in assessment of patients suspected of having coronary artery disease.

Rapid Detection of Coronary Artery Stenoses With Real-Time Perfusion Echocardiography During Regadenoson Stress

“…2 Ultrasound contrast, on the other hand, has been shown to be safe in thousands of patients, without side effects and with only a very low risk (1 in 15 000) of an anaphylactoid reaction. [27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34] Although myocardial perfusion was more sensitive than wall motion for detection of CAD, wall motion analysis may also provide some additional information. The segments with induced wall motion abnormalities often persisted even into the 4-to-6 -minute period after the bolus, which indicates that stunning may have occurred, because perfusion at this stage was returning to normal.…”

Incidence, Pathophysiology, and Treatment of Complications During Dobutamine-Atropine Stress Echocardiography

“…The safety of Definity and Optison in the context of stress echocardiography was shown recently from large registries. 140 Nevertheless, we recommend keeping the patient under close medical supervision during and briefly after the administration of contrast agents. Intravenous antiallergic and anaphylactic drugs (H1 and H2 antihistamines, corticosteroids, and epinephrine) should be available in the echocardiography room in addition to standard resuscitation equipment.…”

Measurement of kidney perfusion in critically ill Patients

“…This property enables the bubbles to circulate through the pulmonary capillaries, hence to be visualized in arterial beds. Although some initial concerns were raised, UCA can now be considered safe after post-marketing experience from over 1 million patients has been reported [68,69]. …”