title: Early assessment of coronary artery bypass graft patency by high-dose dipyridamole echocardiography.
abstract: To assess the role of high-dose (up to 0.84 mg/kg during 10 minutes) dipyridamole echocardiographic testing in the evaluation of coronary artery bypass graft patency early after surgery, 18 consecutive patients with angina underwent dipyridamole echocardiography and coronary angiography before and 7 to 10 days after bypass surgery. Coronary angiography showed 2- or 3-vessel disease in 7 and 11 patients, respectively. A total of 53 bypass grafts were performed. Before bypass surgery 14 patients had a positive and 4 a negative test result. No complication occurred during the test performed early after surgery. Of the 14 patients with positive dipyridamole echocardiographic results before surgery, 10 had negative and 4 had positive results after surgery. All 4 patients had negative results before and after surgery. In the 4 patients with positive results after dipyridamole echocardiographic testing before and after bypass surgery, dipyridamole time increased from 5.8 +/- 5 to 9.3 +/- 0.9 minutes (p = 0.3) after the procedure and wall motion score index at peak dipyridamole changed from 1.55 +/- 0.2 to 1.28 +/- 0.3 (p = 0.05). Forty-nine of 53 grafts were patent as seen on angiography. Dipyridamole echocardiographic results were positive in 4 of 5 patients who had at least 1 obstructed graft or native vessel obstructed distal to bypass graft insertion. The remaining patient had diagnostic electrocardiographic changes during dipyridamole infusion without wall motion abnormalities. Dipyridamole echocardiographic results were negative in all 13 patients who had complete revascularization. In the 4 patients with positive test results, the procedure correctly identified the localization of the diseased bypass graft.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiology, Novara, Italy.
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Bongo
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bolognese
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sarasso
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cernigliaro
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Aralda
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Carfora
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Piccinino
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Campi
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rossi
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rossi
mesh_terms: D017023:Coronary Angiography; D001026:Coronary Artery Bypass; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000601:surgery; D004176:Dipyridamole / Q000008:administration & dosage; D004452:Echocardiography; D004562:Electrocardiography; D006083:Graft Occlusion, Vascular / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011184:Postoperative Period; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D004176:Dipyridamole