A Workstation for the Quantitative Analysis of Real-Time Myocardial Contrast Echocardiography

The real-time myocardial contrast echocardiography (RT MCE) is a new echocardiography technology, which allows clinicians to evaluate the perfusion of myocardial capillary of patients, noninvasively and accurately. We designed a workstation for the quantitative analysis of RT MCE. The system was capable of estimating some hemodynamic parameters of myocardial micro-circulation, and computing time-intensity curves to indicate the variation of the intensity of microbubbles scatting for various myocardial segments in subendocardial and subepicardial. The system also conformed to the digital imaging and communications in medicine (DICOM) standard and could be integrated into the picture archiving and communication system (PACS). The examples of clinical study indicated the clinical effectiveness of the system and the reliability of the quantitative analysis techniques employed in the system.