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Stress EchocardiogramAka: Stress Echo

See Also
Background
1. Most cost-effective, versatile Cardiac Imaging
Indications
1. Chest Pain Evaluation if suspected Aortic Dissection
2. Nondiagnostic Stress EKG, Intermediate CAD likelihood
  1. Resting ST-T Wave abnormalities
  2. Left Bundle Branch Block
  3. Ventricular paced rhythm
  4. Left Ventricular Hypertrophy
  5. Digoxin treatment
3. CAD Diagnosis, risk stratification, and therapy
  1. Assessment of left ventricular systolic function
  2. Identify lesions in planning for PTCA intervention
  3. Risk stratification prior to noncardiac surgery
Advantages of stress echocardiogram
1. Lower cost
2. Determines Ejection Fraction
3. Can determine ventricular volume
4. Assess valvular regurgitation
5. Assesses diastolic function
Disadvantages
1. Large body habitus interferes with echo windows
  1. Optison contrast can be used to increase accuracy
Efficacy
1. Stress Echo: 81% sensitive, 86% specific
2. Dobut. Echo: >75% sensitive, >79% specific

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This page was written by Scott Moses, MD. This page was last revised before 5/10/08, prior to consistent tracking of revision date. This page was last published on 5/10/2008. Please send comments and questions to the editor. Contact information may be found on the page About the Family Practice Notebook. These pages are best viewed with Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0.