Fundamentos de la ecografía con contraste: farmacodinámica y farmacocinética del contraste. Bases de la imagen de ecografía con contraste

Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) is a medical imaging technique that offers multiple advantages over other modalities such as computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). These advantages include portability, no ionising radiation, no renal toxicity, and the major advantage of real-time imaging. CEUS has numerous applications already established for the study of different pathologies, using both intravenous and intracavitary modes of contrast administration. The contrast used in CEUS has a different composition and function to that used in CT or MRI. It only enhances blood vessels and therefore the enhancement of lesions may differ somewhat from CT or MRI in the equilibrium phase. Ultrasound contrast has a very good safety record, with adverse effects being infrequent, generally mild and immediate in intravascular use and non-existent in intracavitary use. It is important to be familiar with the basic concepts of contrast-enhanced ultrasound, the different ways that images can be optimised and the different artifacts that can be produced.