[Exercise echocardiography: interventricular septal thickness and motion in patients with effort angina during...

To detect abnormal interventricular septal (IVS) motion during exercise-induced ischemia, ergometer exercise echocardiography was performed using a specially devised transducer in 12 patients (pts) with effort angina (left anterior descending artery disease) and 10 normal subjects (N) at rest, and during exercise and recovery. During exercise, percent systolic IVS thickening (% delta T) and IVS excursion (Ex) increased from 52 +/- 13% at rest to 73 +/- 19% and from 7.0 /- 1.3 mm at rest to 10.6 +/- 1.9 mm, respectively, in N, and also from 52 +/- 23% to 67 +/- 36% and from 7.3 +/- 1.9 mm to 9.7 +/- 2.1 mm in all of 3 pts with distal left anterior descending artery disease. On the other hand, in 9 pts with proximal left anterior descending artery disease, % delta T and Ex during exercise decreased from 41 +/- 17+ at rest to 26 +/- 25% and from 7.7 +/- 1.2 mm to 5.1 +/- 4.6 mm. The late systolic wall thickening of IVS was observed during peak exercise in 2 of the 9 pts, one of whom exhibited systolic IVS thinning and a decrease in diastolic thickness (from 6 mm to 4.5 mm). In 5 pts with IVS asynergy during exercise diastolic IVS thickness increased maximally from 10.2 +/- 3.3 mm at rest to 11.4 +/- 3.5 mm during recovery (reactive hyperemia). Exercise echocardiography is useful to predict the location of left anterior descending artery disease and to evaluate IVS performance during exercise-induced ischemia.