Identification of hibernating myocardium with myocardial contrast echocardiography

Very little is known about the accuracy of intravenous myocardial contrast echocadiography (MCE) in the detection of myocardial hibernation. There are also currently no data on the comparison of MCE to late gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance (LGE-MR) in this clinical setting. The aim of this pilot study was to predict recovery of regional function in patients with ischemic LV dysfunction undergoing bypass surgery and to compare the accuracy of MCE with LGE-MR in this clinical setting. The sensitivity of preserved myocardial perfusion during MCE for segmental function recovery (hibernating myocardium) of akinetic segments was 78% and was similar to LGE-MR (87%, p-NS). Specificity of MCE was higher than for LGE-CMR (72%, and 52%, respectively; p < 0.01). This pilot study has showed good diagnostic accuracy of MCE for prediction of function recovery after bypass surgery, which is comparable to “gold standard” in assessing myocardial viability - LGE-MR.