The quantitative applications of echocardiography in clinical practice are well known. The measurements of cardiac chamber dimensions, wall thickness, and overall performance have been uniformly adopted. An important emerging ultrasound modality known as tissue characterization of the myocardium has evolved from experimental studies to clinical investigation. The ability to quantitate myocardial acoustic properties by the measurement of integrated backscatter (in decibels) provides direct assessment of myocardial structural characteristics and contractile performance, to complement conventional two-dimensional imaging of ventricular wall motion and wall thickening. Despite the considerable amount of work that has been done, there are several areas of research that need to be further investigated before widespread clinical use of these techniques is possible. Specifically, absolute values of myocardial backscatter are not yet obtainable with the current instrumentation; only the relative change in backscatter during the cardiac cycle (cyclic variation) has been defined and employed in clinical studies. This review summarizes the principles of tissue characterization and the results of several clinical studies, specifically those carried out in patients with coronary artery disease and cardiomyopathies.
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