From the March 2015 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine


Using contrast improves the ability to see how the heart is functioning in patients where visibility is unsatisfactory. “If you try to do an echo on someone in the ICU who is on a ventilator and you can’t change body position to get the heart aligned with the ultrasound probe,” Bhella says you may require contrast to obtain an image that might have been satisfactory in an outpatient setting.

Meanwhile, there are some situations where a patient’s anatomy makes contrast useful. A larger person with a barrel chest, for instance, may have the lungs more in front of their heart, which Bhella says could compromise ultrasound images due to an inability to scan air structures, and therefore require the use of a contrast like Definity.


Just enough and not too much
Used correctly, contrast agents can add a valuable boost to advanced imaging procedures. Taking cases on a patient-by-patient basis, radiologists can figure out which contrast agents to use, and when. In a sense, it’s an approach that has been incorporated into health care in general; getting better outcomes with minimal risk to the patient, and lowering costs.

Bayer’s Pering points out that in some situations, using too little contrast can result in unnecessary repeat imaging of the patient. That kind of redundancy can be costly, and ultimately exposes the patient to more contrast, more radiation, and a prolonged imaging process. “You don’t want to give too much, but you have to give enough,” says Pering.

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