Measurement of radial artery contrast intensity to assess cardiac microbubble behavior.

Objectives: We sought to determine whether analysis of the contrast signal from the radial artery is better able to reflect changes in left ventricular (LV) microbubble dynamics than the signal from the LV itself.

Background: Assessment of microbubble behavior from images of the LV may be affected by attenuation from overlying microbubbles and nonuniform background signal intensities. The signal intensity from contrast in a peripheral artery is not affected by these artifacts and may, thus, be more accurate.