title: Prognostic value of myocardial viability recognized by low-dose dobutamine echocardiography in chronic ischemic left ventricular dysfunction.
abstract: This study assesses the prognostic value of myocardial viability recognized as a contractile response to inotropic stimulation in patients with left ventricular (LV) dysfunction in a large-scale prospective, multicenter, observational study. Four hundred twenty-five patients (mean age 61 +/- 10 years) with angiographically proven coronary artery disease, previous (>3 months) myocardial infarction, and severe LV dysfunction (ejection fraction <35%; mean 28 +/- 6%) were enrolled in the study. Each patient underwent low-dose dobutamine echocardiography (up to 10 microg/kg/min). Myocardial viability was identified as a rest-stress variation (Delta) in the wall motion score index (WMSI), in which each segment was scored from 1 = normal to 4 = dyskinetic in a 16-segment model of the left ventricle. Myocardial viability was identified as an improvement of >/=0.40 in WMSI. All patients were followed for a median of 3.1 years. One hundred eighty-eight were revascularized either by coronary artery bypass grafting (n = 118) or coronary angioplasty (n = 70). The only end point analyzed was cardiac death. In the revascularized group, cardiac death occurred in 4 of the 52 patients with and in 37 of the 136 patients without myocardial viability (7.7% vs 27.2%, p <0.003). Kaplan-Meier survival estimates showed a better outcome for those patients with compared to patients without myocardial viability who underwent coronary revascularization (90.1% vs 62%, p <0.0078). Thus, in severe LV ischemic dysfunction, myocardial viability by low-dose dobutamine echocardiography is associated with improved survival in revascularized patients.
authors.affiliation: CNR, Institute of Clinical Physiology, Pisa, Italy. rosas@ifc.cnr.it
authors.forename: Rosa
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sicari
authors.forename: Eugenio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Picano
authors.forename: Lauro
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cortigiani
authors.forename: Adrian C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Borges
authors.forename: Albert
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Varga
authors.forename: Caterina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Palagi
authors.forename: Riccardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bigi
authors.forename: Roberta
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rossini
authors.forename: Emilio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pasanisi
mesh_terms: D002316:Cardiotonic Agents; D002908:Chronic Disease; D004280:Dobutamine; D004452:Echocardiography / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017202:Myocardial Ischemia / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D009206:Myocardium / Q000473:pathology*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D011446:Prospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate; D018487:Ventricular Dysfunction, Left / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology*
chemical_list: D002316:Cardiotonic Agents; D004280:Dobutamine