Wei Kevin, Lindner Jonathan
Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Oregon Health and Sciences University, Portland, OR 97239, USA.
Crit Care Med. 2007 May;35(5 Suppl):S280-9. doi: 10.1097/01.CCM.0000260678.03628.4C.
Echocardiography is a portable technology that can be used to assess myocardial, pericardial, and valvular structure and function. Doppler echocardiography provides the ability to evaluate blood flow in large vessels and within cardiac chambers. Recently, the advent of microbubble contrast agents, which can opacify the systemic circulation, has improved the ability of echocardiography to evaluate left-ventricular function by improving delineation of the left-ventricular endocardial border. Furthermore, these microbubbles can be used to assess myocardial perfusion and quantify myocardial blood flow. Myocardial contrast echocardiography has been studied in multiple clinical situations, including the acute evaluation of patients presenting with suspected cardiac ischemia. Ongoing research is focused on the development of microbubbles that are capable of detecting molecular and cellular events within the circulation, which may allow distinction of acute vs. remote ischemic insults to the myocardium. This multifaceted technology promises to be of increasing clinical utility--not only for the heart, but for any organ accessible to ultrasound.
超声心动图是一种便携式技术，可用于评估心肌、心包和瓣膜的结构与功能。多普勒超声心动图能够评估大血管和心腔内的血流情况。近年来，可使体循环显影的微泡造影剂的出现，通过改善左心室心内膜边界的描绘，提高了超声心动图评估左心室功能的能力。此外，这些微泡可用于评估心肌灌注并量化心肌血流量。心肌对比超声心动图已在多种临床情况下进行了研究，包括对疑似心脏缺血患者的急性评估。正在进行的研究集中在开发能够检测循环中分子和细胞事件的微泡，这可能有助于区分心肌的急性与陈旧性缺血损伤。这项多方面的技术有望在临床上发挥越来越大的作用——不仅适用于心脏，也适用于任何可进行超声检查的器官。
