[Stress echocardiography with dobutamine. A new method for diagnosis of ischemia]

Dobutamine stress echocardiography was performed in 24 patients with angiographically defined coronary artery stenosis, before they underwent percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty. Ischemia was detected on stress-ECG in 13 patients. In 19 patients ischemia could be detected with dobutamine stress echocardiography. The method was highly sensitive for detecting ischemia in patients with two vessel or three vessel disease and in patients with affection of only the left anterior descending artery. In patients with one vessel disease the method showed low sensitivity. The most common side effects of dobutamine infusion were flushing and palpitations. One patient suffered atrial fibrillation and one patient had a short and self-limiting ventricular tachycardia. The method seems to be a useful and safe supplementary tool for detecting myocardial ischemia. It is also useful for characterizing the physiological effect of coronary artery stenosis.