Contrast Echocardiography in Congenital Heart Disease: An Underutilized Technique

Contrast echocardiography (CE) is a sensitive and safe technique for the definition of congenital cardiac anomalies. We have used CE in 283 patients since 1980. To stabilize the microcavitations, 1–2-ml saline boluses were withdrawn from a bottle of normal saline—to which had been added approximately 0.1–0.5 ml of the patient’s blood obtained on the initial venoclysis using a 3-ml syringe. This contrast medium was then rapidly injected into an arm or scalp vein, a radial artery, or via a catheter into a central vein, artery, or cardiac chamber. There was no recognizable complication from CE in any of the patients studied via this technique.