[1] While contrast agents have not been a critical part of image acquisition in echocardiography, image quality may be suboptimal, particularly in obese patients, in critically ill, ventilated ...

In bubble contrast echocardiography, a sample of liquid (normally saline) is vigorously shaken to produce microbubbles, and then injected into an arm vein while the cardiac chambers are visualized ...

"Echo is biologically very safe. It uses no contrast medium, no radiation-- so it can be repeated often. And echo can evaluate the function of the heart muscle and valves better than any modality." ...

This results in decreased flow velocities and rouleaux formation of red blood cells, which is seen as “spontaneous echo contrast” on echocardiography. If a thrombus in the left atrial ...