Additive value of contrast echocardiography for the diagnosis of noncompaction of the left ventricular myocardium.

Noncompaction of the left ventricular myocardium is a rare and unclassified cardiomyopathy that remains frequently overlooked, even by experienced echocardiographers. This fact may be due to non-optimal imaging of the lateral and apical myocardium, and/or insufficient disease awareness by echocardiographers. We report a case of a young man with heart failure and severe left ventricular dysfunction, previously diagnosed of ischemic etiology, in which the contrast enhancement of left ventricular endocardium allowed us to reach the correct diagnosis of isolated left ventricular noncompaction.