ABSTRACT
We present a case series of three patients that underwent myocardial
contrast echocardiography (MCE) in the setting of recent chest pain, as
paradigmatic examples of the usefulness of contrast-echocardiography
with very-low mechanical index imaging in the context of rest wall
motion assessment.
Moreover, we analysed the pertinent literature about the use of rest MCE
in the context of chest pain of unknown origin, showing its diagnostic
and prognostic impact.
We think that MCE could play a key role in detecting chest pain
subtended by previously unknown CAD. For example, in pts without
significant ECG modifications or in whom high sensitivity troponins show
only borderline increase (still below the upper limit) or have no
clearly significant delta. In such cases the more sensitive evaluation
of WM powered by MCE could add diagnostic information, above all in pts
with severe CAD but apparently normal WM at standard echocardiography.