[Contrast echocardiography. Methods, applications and prospects].

Contrast echocardiography is a diagnostic technique which consists of the injection of a physiological, echogenic solution into the blood stream and mode M or two-dimensional echocardiographic analysis of the echoes produced in order to assess the features of intracardiac blood flow. It is useful for the identification and confirmation of normal and abnormal cardiac structures, the demonstration or exclusion of intracardiac and extracardiac shunts and the diagnosis of valvular incompetence. Many other clinical applications are in the process of being developed. The prospects for future research consist of the discovery of contrast agents capable of crossing the capillary bed and the development of CT techniques for the quantification of the contrast.