As the pacesetter in contrast echocardiography, GE Medical Systems has developed tools to optimize this rapidly evolving research technique. Combined with enhancements to the GE Vingmed System FiVe and an impressive set of analysis tools, our Contrast Research package optimizes system presets and functions to help the echo researcher take full advantage of this technology s potential. That makes it accessible to those who are new to contrast imaging, as well as to those who frequently shift between clinical and research environments. A brief look at contrast imaging Echocardiographic contrast agents are used to understand blood flow in the heart in a variety of modes, including color and power Doppler, power angio and coded harmonic angio.
Contrast agents travel within the blood in both the heart chambers and myocardial tissue.
These contrast agents typically consist of a gas core encapsulated by a shell. The scattered ultrasound signals during 2D harmonic imaging modes from these contrast agents increase the blood flow ultrasound signal detected by three orders of magnitude. With your ultrasound system in power Doppler or coded-harmonic angio, the ultrasound transmitted beam may actually burst the shells and scatter the gas cores, creating an even stronger ultrasound signal. Typically, the increased ultrasound signal during 2D harmonic imaging modes is used to opacify the left ventricular blood volume, allowing better visualization of the left ventricular wall motion. The affect of the additional signal, seen from the agents in power Doppler modes, may be used by researchers to visualize blood flow in the myocardial tissue.