Directional ST-segment deviation in graded exercise tests correlated with motion of the individual segments of the...

An exercise test may be characterized as positive because of the production of either electrocardiographic ST-segment depression or elevation. The relationship of exercise-induced ST-segment deviation to the specific motion abnormalities of the individual segments of the left ventricular wall was investigated. The first 280 subjects to enter the Program of Surgical Control of Hyperlipidemia were studied by treadmill exercise testing and left ventriculography. The results showed that exercise-induced ST-segment elevation could occur without evidence in the resting subject of either dyskinesia or aneurysm of the left ventricle, that the area of left ventricular damage was much greater in subjects with exercise-induced ST-segment elevation than in those with ST-segment depression, and that wall motion abnormalities were concentrated in the inferoposterior area in the group with ST-segment elevation, but were generally scattered throughout the left ventricular wall in the group with ST-segment depression.