Utility of echocardiography for the early assessment of patients with nondiagnostic chest pain.

A two-dimensional (2D) echocardiogram was recorded shortly after admission in 46 patients with nondiagnostic chest pain. Eighteen patients were studied during chest pain and 28 were studied following the resolution of chest pain. Of the 18 patients studied during chest pain, six of the eight patients who had a regional wall motion abnormality (RWMA) evolved an acute infarction and the remaining two patients had evidence of significant coronary artery disease. Only 1 of 10 patients without a RWMA evolved an infarction and none had significant coronary artery disease. Of the 28 patients studied following the resolution of chest pain, 8 of the 10 patients with a RWMA evolved an acute infarction and one patient had evidence of significant coronary artery disease, whereas of 18 patients without a RWMA, none evolved an acute infarction and five had evidence of significant coronary artery disease. These data suggest that in patients presenting with nondiagnostic chest pain, an early assessment of regional wall motion by 2D echocardiography can reliably differentiate patients with myocardial ischemia or early infarction from patients with nonischemic chest pain when performed during an episode of chest pain; can also identify those patients with early acute myocardial infarction, even when performed following the resolution of chest pain; but is not useful for the detection of patients with significant coronary artery disease without infarction when performed following the resolution of chest pain.