Improvements in ultrasound contrast agents

It has been observed that the injection of almost any liquid through a small bore needle or catheter would produce a contrast effect due to the microbubbles generated during injection resulting from the cavitation at the catheter tip. In view of this, many ultrasound contrast agents are produced based on the cavitation principle. These contrast agents which are used in echocardiography allow the: identification of cardiac structures; detection of intracardiac shunts; visualization of blood flow in M-mode; detection of valvular regurgitation; analysis of complex congenital heart disease; and determination of cardiac output by indicator dilution curves.