ACUTE MYOCARDIAL-INFARCTION ASSOCIATED WITH DOBUTAMINE STRESS ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY

Acute myocardial infarction as a complication of dobutamine stress ech ocardiography (DSE) is described in two patients during or shortly aft er undergoing the procedure. Both clinical events resulted in characte ristic elevations in cardiac enzymes and the development of new electr ocardiographic Q waves in the inferior leads. Subsequent coronary angi ography was performed in both cases; one patient required two-vessel c oronary artery bypass grafting to his first obtuse marginal and poster ior descending arteries, and the other underwent successful angioplast y of an occluded proximal right coronary artery. Only two cases of DSE -associated myocardial infarction have been reported previously in the literature.