Pharmacologic stress echocardiography predicts total mortality early after acute myocardial infarction.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this multicenter, prospective, observational study was to assess the value of inducible ischemia in a large population of survivors of a first uncomplicated myocardial infarction (MI).


RESULTS
Pharmacologic stress echocardiography either with high-dose dipyridamole (0.84 mg/kg over 10 minutes) or high-dose dobutamine (up to 40 microg/kg over 3 minutes) (DET) was performed 9 +/- 10 days after a first acute uncomplicated MI in 1681 patients (1499 males; 57 +/- 10 years) with technically satisfactory rest echocardiographic study. Patients were followed up for a mean of 16 +/- 18 months (range: 1-122). DET was positive for myocardial ischemia in 884 (52.5%) and negative in 797 (47.5%) patients. During the follow-up there were 49 deaths for all-cause mortality (2.9% of the total population), 22 of which were cardiac; 62 (3.6%) nonfatal MIs; and 164 (9.7%) hospital readmissions for unstable angina. In all, 376 patients (22%) underwent coronary revascularization (bypass operation or angioplasty).


RESULTS
Hard events occurred in 71 of the 884 patients with positive and in 40 of the 797 patients with negative DET (8% vs 5%, P =.014). Using the Cox proportional hazards model, age (relative risk [RR] 1.07, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.03-1.1), history of angina (RR 3.8, 95% CI 1.6-8.6), peak wall-motion score index (RR 2.2, 95% CI 1.1-4.4), and pharmacologic dose at ischemia (RR 1.5, 95% CI 1.04-2.3) were independent predictors of all-cause death.


CONCLUSIONS
In survivors of a first acute uncomplicated MI DET allows effective risk stratification on the basis of the presence, severity, and extent the induced ischemia.
Sicari
Rosa
R
Institute of Clinical Physiology, CNR, Via Giuseppi Moruzzi 1, 56123 Pisa, Italy. rosas@ifc.cnr.it
Picano
Eugenio
E
Landi
Patrizia
P
Pasanisi
Emilio
E
Venneri
Lucia
L
D000368:Aged; D002316:Cardiotonic Agents; D004176:Dipyridamole; D004280:Dobutamine; D025401:Echocardiography, Stress; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017202:Myocardial Ischemia / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000401:mortality* / Q000628:therapy; D009204:Myocardial Revascularization; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D011446:Prospective Studies; D016019:Survival Analysis
D002316:Cardiotonic Agents; D004280:Dobutamine; D004176:Dipyridamole