Should contrast be routinely used for echocardiographic assessment of left ventricular function?
Thomas Buck* and Raimund Erbel Department of Cardiology, West German Heart Center Essen, University of Duisburg Essen, Hufelandstrasse 55, Essen 45122, Germany * Corresponding author. Tel: +49 201 723 4808; fax: +49 201 723 5408.E-mail address: thomas.buck{at}uni-essen.de’ + u + ‘@’ + d + ”//–> This editorial refers to Assessment of systolic left ventricular function. A multi-centre comparison of cineventriculography, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, unenhanced and contrast enhanced echocardiography by R. Hoffmann et al., on page 607 Hoffmann et al.1 present data showing that contrast-enhanced echocardiography, compared with unenhanced echocardiography, provides more accurate determination of left ventricular ejection fraction and significantly improves the correlation with cineventriculography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Certainly, the most important question arising from this study is whether contrast injection should be routinely recommended for echocardiographic asse
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