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(Circulation. 2004;109:2428-2431.)
© 2004 American Heart Association, Inc.

Clinical Investigation and Reports

Prognostic Value of Pharmacological Stress Echocardiography Is Affected by Concomitant Antiischemic Therapy at the Time of Testing

Rosa Sicari, MD, PhD; Lauro Cortigiani, MD; Riccardo Bigi, MD; Patrizia Landi, BSc; Mauro Raciti, BSc; Eugenio Picano, MD, PhD, for the Echo-Persantine International Cooperative (EPIC) and Echo-Dobutamine International Cooperative (EDIC) Study Groups

From the CNR Institute of Clinical Physiology, Pisa, Italy.

Correspondence to Rosa Sicari, MD, PhD, CNR Institute of Clinical Physiology, Via G. Moruzzi, 1, 561200 Pisa, Italy. E-mail rosas{at}ifc.cnr.it

Received August 29, 2003; de novo received December 18, 2003; revision received February 3, 2004; accepted February 23, 2004.

Background— The aim of this study was to determine whether antianginal medications affect the prognostic value of pharmacological stress echocardiography.

Methods and Results— From the EPIC-EDIC Data Bank, 7333 patients (5452 men; age; 59±10 years) underwent pharmacological stress echocardiography with either high-dose dipyridamole (0.84 mg/kg over 10 minutes; n=4984) or high-dose dobutamine (up to 40 µg · kg^–1 · min^–1; n=2349) (DET) for diagnostic purposes. At the time of testing, 1791 patients were on antiischemic therapy (nitrates and/or calcium antagonists and/or ß-blockers). Patients were followed up for a mean of 2.6 years (range, 1 to 206 months). DET was positive for myocardial ischemia in 2854 patients (39%) and negative in 4479 (61%). Total mortality was 336 (4.5%). Death was attributed to cardiac causes in 161 patients (2.1%). Survival was highest in patients with negative DET off therapy and lowest in patients with positive DET studied on therapy (95% versus 81%; P=0.0000). Survival was comparable in patients with a negative test on therapy and in patients with a positive test off therapy (88% versus 84%, P=NS).

Conclusions— Ongoing antiischemic therapy at the time of testing heavily modulates the prognostic value of pharmacological stress echo. In the presence of concomitant antiischemic therapy, a positive test is more prognostically malignant, and a negative test less prognostically benign.

Key Words: ischemia • coronary disease • echocardiography • prognosis

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