COMPARISON OF THE PROGNOSTIC VALUE OF DIPYRIDAMOLE AND DOBUTAMINE STRESS ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY IN PATIENTS WITH KNOWN OR SUSPECTED CORONARY-ARTERY DISEASE

Prognostic stratification in patients with known or suspected coronary artery disease (CAD) is a major goal of noninvasive diagnostic method s. High-dose dipyridamole stress echocardiography (DET) and dobutamine atropine stress echocardiography (DSE) are accurate techniques for th e identification of patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). The 2 tests have comparable diagnostic accuracy, with a slightly higher sen sitivity of DSE in 1-vessel disease balanced by a slightly higher spec ificity of DET.(1-4) Individually, the utility of DET5,6 as well as of DSE7-9 to identify patients at risk for cardiac events has also been demonstrated recently. The prognostic value for predicting death, nonf atal myocardial infarction, and revascularization procedures was highe r than that for exercise electrocardiography.(5,6) To further define t he role of DET and DSE for risk stratification, comparison studies are required.