STRESS ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY

Stress echocardiography has become an accepted noninvasive method for the diagnosis of coronary artery disease. Stress echocardiography is m ore sensitive than exercise electrocardiography and as sensitive and s pecific as radionuclide perfusion studies for detecting coronary arter y disease. Pharmacologic stress echocardiography using dobutamine also has excellent diagnostic accuracy for patients who are unable to exer cise. Dobutamine stress echocardiography can provide prognostic data t o determine perioperative cardiac risks in patients who are undergoing vascular surgery.