Assessment of left ventricular wall motion and delineation of the endocardial border after intravenous injection of Infosontm during dobutamine stress echocardiography

Objectives To investigate whether intravenous injection of InfosonTM facilitates the assessment of left ventricular wall motion and definition of endocardial border and thereby reduces inter- and intra-observer variability during dobutamine stress echocardiography. Background Clear detection of the endocardial border is essential during dobutamine stress echocardiography. Although several contrast agents have been tested for their efficacy in enhancing definition of left ventricular endocardium, their usefulness during dobutamine stress echocardiography has not been evaluated. Methods Thirty coronary artery disease patients underwent dobutamine stress echocardiography. InfosonTM was injected at 0.2 ml/kg in both apical four-and two-chamber views. Detection of the left ventricular endocardial borders was scored from 0 (undetectable) to 10 (best) and expressed as a percentage of image quality at rest and peak stress by two independent observers. Regional wall motion was also evaluated and the total wall motion score index calculated each time. Results Delineation of the left ventricular endocardium improved from 76 ± 4% to 84 ± 2% at rest (P Conclusions Intravenous administration of InfosonTM facilitates the assessment of wall motion, particularly of the basal lateral and anterior walls where endocardial border drop-out frequently occurs during dobutamine stress echocardiography; it thus reduces the inter- and intra-observer variability.