Contrast echocardiography: clinical utility.

This article reviews the advances made by the echocardiographic contrast agents from their first appearance in the early 1970s with homemade preparations up to the new generation of transpulmonary contrast agents made of small microbubbles capable of transversing the lung's capillary bed. The great progress in contrast agent development has kept pace with the progress made by echocardiographic equipment, thus making the study of myocardial perfusion in the clinical settings a near-future reality. This article also discusses the medical need that myocardial contrast echo has the potential to satisfy.