Sustained favorable long-term prognosis of negative stress echocardiography following uncomplicated myocardial infarction

Stress echocardiography expert consensus statement: European Association of Echocardiography (EAE) (a registered branch of the ESC)

Stress echocardiography is the combination of 2D echocardiography with a physical, pharmacological or electrical stress. The diagnostic end point for the detection of myocardial ischemia is the induction of a transient worsening in regional function during stress. Stress echocardiography provides similar diagnostic and prognostic accuracy as radionuclide stress perfusion imaging, but at a substantially lower cost, without environmental impact, and with no biohazards for the patient and the physician. Among different stresses of comparable diagnostic and prognostic accuracy, semisupine exercise is the most used, dobutamine the best test for viability, and dipyridamole the safest and simplest pharmacological stress and the most suitable for combined wall motion coronary flow reserve assessment. The additional clinical benefit of myocardial perfusion contrast echocardiography and myocardial velocity imaging has been inconsistent to date, whereas the potential of adding - coronary flow reserve evaluation of left anterior descending coronary artery by transthoracic Doppler echocardiography adds another potentially important dimension to stress echocardiography. New emerging fields of application taking advantage from the versatility of the technique are Doppler stress echo in valvular heart disease and in dilated cardiomyopathy. In spite of its dependence upon operator's training, stress echocardiography is today the best (most cost-effective and risk-effective) possible imaging choice to achieve the still elusive target of sustainable cardiac imaging in the field of noninvasive diagnosis of coronary artery disease.

Myocardial viability assessed by dobutamine stress echocardiography predicts reduced mortality early after acute myocardial infarction: determining the risk of events after myocardial infarction (DREAM) study

OBJECTIVE

To establish further the role of dobutamine stress echocardiography (DSE) in prognostication of outcome early after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) METHODS: Consecutive patients presenting with AMI were screened for inclusion into the study. 212 stable consenting patients underwent DSE a mean (SD) of 4.8 (1.5) days after AMI. Patients were then followed up for 803 (297) days.

RESULTS

The mean (SD) resting systolic wall thickening index (SWTI) was 1.6 (0.4), 44% patients had evidence of viability at low dose, and 38% had evidence of ischaemia. During the follow up period 27 (13%) patients died and 16 (8%) had a non-fatal AMI. Independent predictors of both mortality and combined mortality and non-fatal AMI were age (hazard ratio (HR) 1.04/year, p = 0.01, and HR 1.03/year, p = 0.04, respectively) and SWTI at low dose (HR 3.6, p < 0.01, and HR 2.5, p = 0.02, respectively). Low dose DSE provided incremental information over clinical and resting left ventricular function data for predicting death and non-fatal AMI. For patients who were not revascularised SWTI at peak dose dobutamine was the only independent predictor of mortality.

CONCLUSION

DSE is a powerful predictor of outcome in stable survivors of AMI. The presence of myocardial viability has a positive impact on survival.

Stress echocardiography versus myocardial SPECT for risk stratification of patients with coronary artery disease

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

Diagnostic testing using noninvasive imaging has become an integral part of risk stratification in patients with coronary artery disease. It is important to understand the integral strengths and weaknesses between the different modalities of stress testing and to apply accurately the type of test the clinical scenario demands.

RECENT FINDINGS

There have been tremendous advances made in the field of cardiac imaging. Both myocardial perfusion imaging and stress echocardiographic techniques continue to evolve and play an important role in the assessment of patients with coronary artery disease.

SUMMARY

In this review the authors discuss the relative merits of both stress echocardiography and myocardial single photon emission computed tomographic imaging for diagnosis and risk stratification of patients with coronary artery disease.