Foreword

Article Outline

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Clinical use of echocardiography/Doppler rose from modest beginnings more than 40 years ago to where it has become in the last 30+ years, an essential and important part of clinical cardiovascular practice. It has contributed greatly to the improvement in the care of patients with cardiovascular diseases.

In the more recent era, contrast echocardiography has been a useful addition to routine echocardiography/Doppler studies. It has provided an assessment of the coronary microcirculation, left ventricular size and function, quantitation of myocardial blood flow, an aid in the diagnosis and quantitation of myocardial infarction, assessment of hibernating myocardium, and assessment of coronary artery disease. Contrast echocardiography is being underutilized and needs a much greater emphasis in clinical and cardiovascular medicine. Dr. Jonathan Linder is a nationally recognized expert in this field. He and his colleagues have provided a superb and comprehensive review with 143 references of this very important area.

Dr. Bijoy Khanderia, who has provided comments, is an expert echocardiographer and is currently the President of the American Society of Echocardiography.

The Editorial Board and I are grateful to Dr. Linder and his colleagues and to Dr. Khanderia for their efforts.