Kiviniemi Tuomas
Department of Clinical Physiology and Nuclear Medicine, Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland.
Clin Physiol Funct Imaging. 2008 May;28(3):145-55. doi: 10.1111/j.1475-097X.2008.00794.x. Epub 2008 Feb 26.
The development in ultrasound technology has allowed the use of non-invasive transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) for the study of coronary artery physiology and pathophysiology. TTE can be used to detect atherosclerotic changes in epicardial coronary arteries and to study the effects of specific interventions on coronary microcirculation.
The purpose of this review was to summarize the development of TTE, and outweigh the strenghts and weaknesses of the method for the evaluation of coronary artery blood flow. Moreover, findings from clinical trials studying microcirculatory reactivity using TTE are presented.
TTE is a feasible and reproducible method for the evaluation of coronary artery blood flow. It can also be used in assessing the vasodilation of the epicardial coronary artery simultaneously with flow velocity measurement during the cold pressor test and coronary flow velocity reserve assessment. It is specifically suitable for repeated measurements in interventional trials.
超声技术的发展使得无创经胸超声心动图（TTE）可用于研究冠状动脉的生理和病理生理。TTE可用于检测心外膜冠状动脉的动脉粥样硬化变化，并研究特定干预措施对冠状动脉微循环的影响。
本综述的目的是总结TTE的发展，并权衡该方法在评估冠状动脉血流方面的优缺点。此外，还介绍了使用TTE研究微循环反应性的临床试验结果。
TTE是评估冠状动脉血流的一种可行且可重复的方法。它还可用于在冷加压试验和冠状动脉血流速度储备评估期间，在测量血流速度的同时评估心外膜冠状动脉的血管舒张。它特别适用于干预试验中的重复测量。
