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Contrast echocardiography and medical economics: looking into the crystal ball

A. Distante*,1, R. Dankowski2, P. Mincarone3, C.G. Leo1, E. Gianicolo4, P. Voci5, M.A. Morales6 and D. Rovai6

a University of Pisa, Cardio Thoracic Department, Pisa, Italy
b Karol Marcinkowski University of Medical Sciences, Poznan, Poland
c Istituto Superiore Universitario di Formazione Interdisciplinare, University of Lecce, Lecce, Italy
d Istituto Scientifico Biomedico Euro Mediterraneo, Brindisi, Italy
e University of Rome, Rome, Italy
f Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (National Research Council), Clinical Physiology Institute, Istituto di Fisiologia Clinica, Pisa, Italy

* Correspondence: Alessandro Distante, Istituto di Fisiologia Clinica IFC-CNR-CREAS, Via Paolo Savi 8, 56100 Pisa, Italy.

Abstract

The past decade has witnessed the development of contrast echocardiography. This technique has demonstrated clinical utility in some applications and extremely promising results have been reported for others, although there are still several obstacles to its acceptance by regulatory authorities and routine users. In addition, the efficacy and cost-effectiveness must be proven against ‘gold standard’ techniques, which in several cases are just accepted standards. Furthermore, the competition is quite strong both between new techniques and with established ones, and all of the imaging modalities need to find their most appropriate role within this complex environment.

Key Words: Contrast • echocardiography • economics • techniques

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