Stress Echocardiography in Stable Coronary Artery Disease

Sothinathan Gurunathan1,2,3, Roxy Senior4,5,6

  • 1Department of Cardiology, Northwick Park Hospital, Harrow, UK.

Insights

Stress echocardiography (SE) is a valuable tool for diagnosing and assessing risk in coronary artery disease (CAD). Newer technologies enhance its efficacy, proving SE remains a safe, cost-effective cornerstone for CAD evaluation.

Area of Science:

  • Cardiology
  • Medical Imaging
  • Diagnostic Techniques

Background:

  • Stress echocardiography (SE) is a standard method for diagnosing and risk-stratifying patients with known or suspected coronary artery disease (CAD).
  • This review examines the current role and advancements in SE for CAD assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review the current status of stress echocardiography in the diagnosis and risk stratification of coronary artery disease (CAD).
  • To summarize testing protocols, clinical efficacy, and the application of newer technologies in SE for CAD.

Main Methods:

  • Review of current literature and multicentre studies on stress echocardiography.
  • Evaluation of newer technologies including myocardial perfusion, strain imaging, 3D echocardiography, and carotid ultrasonography.

Main Results:

  • Myocardial perfusion imaging integrated with SE shows significant clinical value.
  • SE is more cost-effective than exercise ECG for patients with low-intermediate pre-test probability of CAD.
  • Adjunctive carotid ultrasonography to SE offers synergistic prognostic value.

Conclusions:

  • Stress echocardiography remains the cornerstone for CAD assessment due to its excellent clinical efficacy, safety, and cost-effectiveness.
  • Advancements in imaging technologies further enhance the utility of SE in clinical practice.
Abstract

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