Adenosine triphosphate stress myocardial contrast echocardiography detects coronary artery stenosis with greater sensitivity than wall-motion abnormality measurements.
BACKGROUND
Although stress myocardial contrast echocardiography (MCE) can be used to detect coronary stenosis, its efficacy relative to other methods, such as detection of wall-motion abnormalities, remains unknown. Thus, the goal of this study was to compare the sensitivity of MCE versus wall-motion abnormality detection in the assessment of coronary artery stenosis.


METHODS
Nine dogs with severe but nonflow limiting stenosis in the circumflex coronary artery underwent evaluation with real-time MCE along the short-axis view during infusion of Optison. The equation of y = a (1 - e -betat ) + c, which fits the replenishment curve of MCE, was calculated in the midseptum (normal region) and in the lateral wall (ischemic region) before and during adenosine triphosphate infusion. Wall-motion abnormalities were also evaluated by visual assessment and by measurement of wall thickening.


RESULTS
Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve in beta- and A x beta-value, and percent wall thickening, was 0.963, 0.963, and 0.889, respectively, indicating that the diagnostic accuracy for detecting the coronary artery stenosis by real-time MCE was higher than that by the wall-motion assessment.


CONCLUSIONS
Real-time MCE has higher sensitivity in detecting coronary stenosis during adenosine triphosphate stress test when compared with wall-motion assessment.
Otani
Kentaro
K
Department of Medical Physics, School of Allied Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Osaka University, Suita, Japan.
Toshida
Tsutomu
T
Iwata
Akiko
A
Asanuma
Toshihiko
T
Ishikura
Fuminobu
F
Beppu
Shintaro
S
D000255:Adenosine Triphosphate; D000818:Animals; D023921:Coronary Stenosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D004285:Dogs; D004452:Echocardiography; D025401:Echocardiography, Stress; D017379:Hypertrophy, Left Ventricular / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013997:Time Factors; D018487:Ventricular Dysfunction, Left / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*
D000255:Adenosine Triphosphate