Safety and feasibility of dopamine-atropine stress echocardiography

Dobutamine-atropine stress echocardiography (DSE) has lower sensitivity in patients with advanced liver disease (ALD) due to vasodilation.

Dopamine-atropine stress echocardiography (DopSE) may be an alternative to DSE in ALD patients by improving the blood pressure response to stress.

The safety and tolerability of DSE and DopSE were compared in 10 volunteers. The safety, adverse effects, and efficacy of DopSE were then assessed in 105 patients, 98 of whom had ALD. Dopamine was infused in stepwise fashion from 5 µg/kg/min to a peak dose of 40 µg/kg/min. Atropine was given before and in early stages of dopamine infusion up to cumulative dose of 1.5 mg. The hemodynamic responses of 98 ALD patients were compared with 102 patients with ALD who underwent standard DSE.

In normal volunteers, systolic BP increased more with DopSE compared to DSE (61 ± 19 mm Hg vs 39 ± 15 mm Hg, P = .008). In 105 patients who underwent DopSE, none had adverse effects that required early stress termination. In the groups with ALD, the systolic BP increase (38 ± 28 mm Hg vs 12 ± 27 mm Hg, P < .001) and peak rate pressure product (RPP) (22 861 ± 5289 vs 17 211 ± 3848, P = <.001) were both higher in those undergoing DopSE versus DSE. The sensitivity and specificity of DopSE were 45% and 88%, respectively for coronary disease (≥70% stenosis) in 37 patients who had angiography.

Dopamine-atropine stress echocardiography appears to be a safe stress modality and provides greater increases in RPP in patients with ALD compared to DSE.