Improvement of endocardial border delineation during dobutamine stress echocardiography with Levovist

This study evaluated whether the use of Levovist improves endocardial border delineation during dobutamine stress echocardiography.Thirty patients (20 men and 10 women) were enrolled in this study. Dobutamine was infused intravenously using an incremental regimen of 5, 10, 20, 30, and 40 micrograms/kg/min, each dose for 3 min. Levovist (277 mg/ml), dissolved in 9 ml of 5% dextrose, was infused intravenously. Two ml was infused at rest, 10, and 20 micrograms/kg/min. Three ml was infused at peak dobutamine dosage. Echocardiograms were recorded on videotapes. A endocardial border delineation score index (EDSI) was used for image analysis. The EDSI was obtained from each of 12 segments of the left ventricular wall (30 patients) in the rest and peak stress periods, before and after Levovist. Data from a total of 1,440 segments were analyzed separately.The mean EDSI at rest was 2.2 +/- 0.6 without contrast medium, and 2.4 +/- 0.7 with contrast medium (p0.05). The mean EDSI during peak stress was 2.0 +/- 0.7 without contrast medium, and 2.2 +/- 0.6 with contrast medium (p0.05). The wall-by-wall EDSI revealed that the delineation of apical-septal, mid- and apical-lateral, apical-inferior, and apical-anterior segments was improved significantly with Levovist in the rest and peak stress periods.Delineation of the apical-septal, mid- and apical-lateral, apical-inferior, and apical-anterior segments was improved significantly with Levovist during dobutamine stress echocardiography.