[Stress echocardiography versus scintigraphy in coronary disease: scintigraphy is the method of choice]

Myocardial perfusion imaging and stress echocardiography play a major role in the non-invasive evaluation of patients with known or suspected coronary artery disease. Data of the literature indicate that the two techniques are practically equivalent for the diagnosis of coronary artery disease. However, tomoscintigraphic imaging is more sensitive than exercise echocardiography for localizing lesions, correctly identifying the presence of multivessel coronary disease and distinguishing viable from nonviable myocardium in a ventricular territory with abnormal contraction. Both techniques require specialized equipment and technical expertise and thus, in a given institution, one technique could be more accurately performed and provides better results. Therefore, it is preferable to underline the complementary aspects of the two techniques rather than opposing them to each other.