Optimal criteria for coronary artery disease evaluation by dobutamine stress echocardiography

The diagnosis of coronary artery disease [CAD] on the basis of inducible wall motion abnormalities [WMA] as well as Doppler-derived indices rather than WMA alone was suggested to improve specificity of dobutamine stress echocardiography [DSE]. This study aimed to find out the impact of using these criteria together on accuracy and sensitivity of high dose [DSE] test in the evaluation of CAD. Thirty patients with chronic stable angina or old MI were classified according to the results of coronary angiography into two groups: Group I included 17 patients with a significant CAD and Group II included 13 patients with normal coronaries. The studied groups were well matched regarding basal characteristics