To our knowledge, this is the first book dealing exclusively with myocardial contrast two-dimensional echocardiography (MC-2DE), a new and exciting diagnostic methodology for assessment of myocardial perfusion, which has seen rapid development and has now entered the clinical stage. The experi mental research and human applications have been described in technical papers published in a variety of journals, but our objective is to provide the reader with a comprehensive and concentrated overview of the field and of the current state of the art. To facilitate appreciation of the significant ad vances made and issues yet to be resolved, we are pleased to have several well known specialists contribute their own assessment of specific aspects of MC- 20E and illustrate the method's principles as well as applications. We were faced with inevitable overlaps and some repetitions in the discussion of quan titative potentials or limilations of the methodology. Rather than strictly 'streamlining' the text, we decided to accept some redundancy in the interest of presenting a diversity of points of views, reflecting the current evolutionary state of MC-20E. Following a brief reference to the established clinical contrast echocardiog raphy, recent developments and validations of the specialized MC-2DE tech nique are reviewed, bearing in mind that the field is in a flux and some of the ongoing activities have not as yet been formally reported. Mechanisms of the echo contrast and several new agents are decribed next, and an additional chapter illustrates current thoughts-on optimizing the echo contrast medium."

The primary goal of this book is to survey issues pertaining to coronary venous retroperfusion, a potentially beneficial treatment of myocardial ischemia. Since attention will be focused on the myocardium, its normal or deranged antegrade perfusion will be discussed first, along with factors affecting blood supply to region ally ischemic tissue. After pointing to coronary reperfusion and its rapidly expand ing applications, the principle of coronary venous interventions will be discussed. Recent anatomic observations are presented to clarify features of the coronary venous sytems, some of which remain inadequately defined, yet play a crucial role in determining effectiveness of all retrograde methods. The remainder of the text concentrates on the development of retroperfusion sytems designed for retrograde treatment of myocardium jeopardized by deficient ante grade blood delivery, sec ondary to coronary artery obstruction. Retroinfusion of contrast is also considered as a potential diagnostic tool. The final chapter of the book reports on recent efforts aimed at a mathematical modeling of mechanisms and effects of coronary venous interventions."

To our knowledge, this is the first book dealing exclusively with myocardial contrast two-dimensional echocardiography (MC-2DE), a new and exciting diagnostic methodology for assessment of myocardial perfusion, which has seen rapid development and has now entered the clinical stage. The experi mental research and human applications have been described in technical papers published in a variety of journals, but our objective is to provide the reader with a comprehensive and concentrated overview of the field and of the current state of the art. To facilitate appreciation of the significant ad vances made and issues yet to be resolved, we are pleased to have several well known specialists contribute their own assessment of specific aspects of MC- 20E and illustrate the method's principles as well as applications. We were faced with inevitable overlaps and some repetitions in the discussion of quan titative potentials or limilations of the methodology. Rather than strictly 'streamlining' the text, we decided to accept some redundancy in the interest of presenting a diversity of points of views, reflecting the current evolutionary state of MC-20E. Following a brief reference to the established clinical contrast echocardiog raphy, recent developments and validations of the specialized MC-2DE tech nique are reviewed, bearing in mind that the field is in a flux and some of the ongoing activities have not as yet been formally reported. Mechanisms of the echo contrast and several new agents are decribed next, and an additional chapter illustrates current thoughts-on optimizing the echo contrast medium."