Myocardial contrast echocardiography in ischemic heart disease: Osaka experience

Coronary angiography is a popular method for analyzing coronary circulation in humans. This method is certainly useful for assessing the epicardial coronary artery; however, it is of little use for assessing coronary microvasculature. Myocardial contrast echocardiography (MCE) is a relatively new method of visualizing the territory of the coronary arteries through the intracoronary injection of microbubbles. We recently showed that MCE provides information about the territory of the coronary circulation but also the degree of damage of coronary microvasculature. We have studied coronary microvasculature in patients with ischemic heart disease using MCE, and summarize our MCE data here.