Comparison of five different stress testing methods in the ECG diagnosis of coronary artery disease. Correlation with coronary arteriography.

Five different stress testing methods: bicycle ergometer exercise (BE), treadmill exercise (TD), isoproterenol infusion test (IPN), dopamine infusion test (DPM), and atrial pacing (AP), were performed on 90 male patients who underwent coronary arteriography. Ischemic S-T segment depression of 1.0 mm or greater was used as the criterion for a positive test. Within the group of 56 subjects having significant coronary artery disease (CAD) the diagnostic sensitivity of the single tests was as follows: 64.3% for BE, 66.1% for TD, 69.6% for IPN, 41.1% for DPM, 75.0% for AP. For the 34 subjects with no CAD the folowing specificity was found: 88.2% for BE and for TD, 82.3% for IPN, 85.3% for DPM, 63.8% for AP. When the results of the different tests were combined, it was seen that the association of an ergometric test with IPN enhanced the sensitivity of the exercise test (p less than 0.05) without significantly decreasing the specificity.