ARBUTAMINE STRESS ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY

Arbutamine, a new potent non-selective beta-adrenoceptor agonist with mild alpha 1-sympathomimetic activity, has been developed specifically for pharmacological stress testing. The drug acts like physical exerc ise. increasing both heart rate and myocardial contractility. Sensitiv ity, specificity and accuracy in detecting significant stenotic corona ry artery disease are 76%, 96%, and 82%, respectively, again similar t o those of exercise echocardiography. The drug is delivered by a compu terized drug delivery and monitoring device (GenESA) which adjusts the infusion rate according to the patient's heart rate data feedback. Th e drug is generally well tolerated and has an acceptable safety profil e. This article describes recent clinical experience with arbutamine a nd presents preliminary results of a multicentre multinational study w hich evaluates the clinical utility and safety of the GenESA system in diagnosing coronary artery disease.