[Prognostic value of treadmill exercise echocardiography].

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES

Exercise echocardiography (EE) is useful for diagnosing coronary disease, but little is known about its value for risk stratification. We aimed to determine: a) whether data from EE supplemented clinical data and data from exercise testing and resting echocardiography in predicting cardiac events; and b)whether the number and location of abnormal regions and their responses to exercise influenced risk stratification.

PATIENTS AND METHOD

The 2,436 patients referred for EE were followed up for 2.1+/-1.5 years. Some 120 serious cardiovascular events (i.e., non-fatal myocardial infarction or cardiovascular death) occurred before revascularization.

RESULTS

In 1203 patients (49%), EE gave abnormal results. There were 89 events in patients with an abnormal result (7.3%) and 31 in those with a normal result (2.5%; P<.0001). Multivariate analysis of clinical data, and data from exercise testing, resting echocardiography, and EE showed that male sex (RR=1.7; 95% CI, 1.1-2.8; P=.02), metabolic equivalents or METs (RR=0.9; 95% CI, 0.86-0.98; P=.01), peak heart rate x blood pressure (RR= 0.9;95% CI, 0.9; P=.002), resting wall motion score index (RR=2.5; 95% CI, 1.5-4.1; P<.0001), and number of abnormal regions at peak exercise (RR=1.4; 95% CI, 1.2-1.7; P<.0001) were independently associated with the risk of a serious event (final model chi2, 170; incremental P<.0001). The same variables, excluding sex, were independently associated with cardiovascular death (final model chi2, 169; incremental P=.01).

CONCLUSIONS

Exercise echocardiography supplements clinical data and data from exercise testing and resting echocardiography in patients with known or suspected coronary artery disease.