Assessment of myocardial viability by dobutamine stress echocardiography.

The assessment of myocardial viability is of increasing clinical relevance in the era of thrombolytic therapy and coronary revascularization. Dobutamine stress echocardiography has been proposed as a method of detecting residual viability. The echocardiographic hallmark for viability of a dyssynergic segment is improvement of wall thickening after inotropic challenge. Several clinical studies published over the past year have shown the value of dobutamine stress echocardiography in predicting improvement in regional and global ventricular function after revascularization.