[Improving color Doppler echocardiography of the right heart chambers following intravenous injection of SHU 454].

The echocardiographic contrast agent SHU 454 provides microbubbles of defined size (median 3 micron) in a solution of galactose and is available in different reproducible concentrations. In 22 patients with suspected tricuspid regurgitation, color flow mapping (CFM) Doppler echocardiography was performed before and after intravenous injection of 2-4 ml SHU 454. Without SHU 454 the diastolic blood flow was imaged on 13.6 +/- 7.5% (mean value + standard deviation) of the cross sectional area of the right ventricle (four-chamber view) in comparison to 39.0 +/- 15.0% with SHU 454 (p less than 0.001). For the right atrium, the area analyzed by CFM increased from 9.4 +/- 12.9% to 62.4 +/- 25.3% (p less than 0.001). The interindividual variability of measurements after injection of SHU 454 was 5.9 +/- 4.0% as compared to 10.7 +/- 6.9% without SHU 454 (p less than 0.05). These findings demonstrate that intravenous SHU 454 administration increases the detection of blood flow by CFM within the right heart.