POTENTIAL OF A NEW TECHNIQUE OF DOPPLER T ISSUE IMAGING IN DIAGNOSIS OF CONCEALED CORONARY INSUFFICIENCY

Stress (transesophageal atrial pacing) echocardiography with new doppl er tissue imaging technology was used for evaluation of 31 patients 18 of whom had ischemic heart disease. Systolic and diastolic velocities of contraction and relaxation in subendocardial and subepicardial reg ions of the myocardium along with velocity, acceleration time and acce leration of contraction were measured at each pacing rate. In persons without ischemic heart disease progressive elevation of acceleration o ccurred at the account of increase in velocity on initial stages and o f shortening of time on the last stages of a stress test. Velocities i n subendocardial layers were higher than those in subepicardial region s throughout the whole study. In contrast, patients with coronary arte ry disease had equal or even inverted velocities in subendocardial and subepicardial regions and demonstrated decrease of acceleration on co rresponding stages of stress test. Thus the use of a new doppler tissu e imaging technology in stress echocardiography made this sensitive me thod of diagnosis of concealed coronary insufficiency more objective a nd standardized.