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The functional significance of chronotropic incompetence during dobutamine stress test
A Elhendy1, R T van Domburg, J J Bax
1Department of Cardiology, Cairo University Hospital, Cairo, Egypt.
Insights
Chronotropic incompetence, a failure to reach target heart rate during dobutamine stress tests, is linked to younger age and male sex. This highlights the need for age and sex-specific heart rate criteria in dobutamine stress testing.
Area of Science:
- Cardiology
- Clinical Physiology
Background:
- Chronotropic incompetence (CI) is a common finding during stress testing.
- Its functional significance in dobutamine stress echocardiography (DSE) requires further investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the functional significance of chronotropic incompetence during dobutamine stress echocardiography.
- To identify predictors of CI in patients undergoing DSE.
Main Methods:
- A total of 512 patients without beta-blocker treatment undergoing DSE were analyzed.
- CI was defined as achieving less than 85% of age and sex-predicted maximum heart rate at maximal dobutamine dose.
- Multivariate analysis was used to identify independent predictors of CI.
Main Results:
- Chronotropic incompetence occurred in 38% of patients.
- Independent predictors of CI included lower resting heart rate, younger age, and male sex.
- No significant difference in the prevalence of ischemia or coronary artery disease was observed between patients with and without CI.
Conclusions:
- The study identified younger age and male sex as independent predictors of chronotropic incompetence.
- These findings suggest the need to titrate dobutamine dose based on age and sex-specific heart rate responses.
- Establishing appropriate heart rate criteria is crucial for accurately interpreting CI during DSE.
Objective:
To investigate the functional significance of chronotropic incompetence during dobutamine stress echocardiography.
Patients And Methods:
The functional significance of chronotropic incompetence was evaluated during dobutamine stress echocardiography in 512 patients without beta blocker treatment who underwent dobutamine stress echocardiography (up to 40 microg/kg/min) and completed the protocol or reached the target heart rate. Mean (SD) age was 60 (12) years (313 men, 199 women). Chronotropic incompetence was defined as failure to achieve 85% of the maximum exercise heart rate predicted for age and sex (220 - age in men; 200 - age in women) at maximum dobutamine dose.
Results:
Chronotropic incompetence occurred in 196 patients (38%). Affected patients were significantly younger, more likely to be men (both p << 0.001) and smokers (p < 0.05), had a higher prevalence of previous myocardial infarction (p < 0.005) and resting wall motion abnormalities (p < 0. 05), and had a lower resting heart rate (p << 0.001) and systolic blood pressure (p << 0.001) than patients without chronotropic incompetence, but there was no difference in the overall prevalence of ischaemia and significant coronary artery disease. By multivariate analysis, independent predictors of chronotropic incompetence were a lower resting heart rate (p << 0.001), younger age (p << 0.001), and male sex (p << 0.001).
Conclusions:
The relations among sex, age, and chronotropic incompetence show the need to titrate the dobutamine dose using specific data based on age and sex related heart rate responses to dobutamine rather than to an exercise stress test. Obtaining specific heart rate criteria is necessary to determine whether chronotropic incompetence represents a real failure to achieve a normal response or is the result of applying an inappropriate gold standard.