BackgroundThe purpose of this study was to determine whether myocardial perfusion can be quantified with myocardial contrast echocardiography using left atrial (LA) injection of contrast.Methods and ResultsBased on a series of in vitro and in vivo experiments, the optimal dose of sonicated albumin microbubbles injected into the LA for establishing a linear relation between video intensity and blood volume in the anterior myocardium was determined. In 10 open-chest dogs, myocardial blood flow (MBF) was augmented by increasing myocardial blood volume (MBV) with an intravenous infusion of phenylephrine HCl. In the presence of this drug, left anterior descending artery stenosis was produced, followed by release of stenosis, to change MBF within the anterior myocardium. MBV was calculated by dividing radiolabeled microsphere-derived MBF by microbubble transit rate. There was close coupling between MBF and MBV in the anterior myocardium during LA injection of contrast (y=1.0x−0.03, SEE=1.07,r=.92,P<.001). An excellent correlation was also noted between background-subtracted peak video intensity and MBV (y=0.24x+0.73, SEE=0.36,r=.88,P<.001). On multivariate analysis, background-subtracted peak video intensity correlated best with MBV.ConclusionsMyocardial perfusion can be quantified from time-intensity curves derived from the anterior myocardium after LA injection of contrast. Background-subtracted peak video intensity in this situation correlates closely with MBV. When MBV and MBF are closely coupled, such as during inotropic stimulation of the heart, background-subtracted peak video intensity also correlates closely with MBF. Since there are similarities in the models of LA and venous injections, these data indicate that it may be feasible to quantify myocardial perfusion with myocardial contrast echocardiography after venous injection of contrast.