Non-invasive assessment of myocardial ischaemia using new real-time three-dimensional dobutamine stress echocardiography: comparison with conventional two-dimensional methods.
OBJECTIVE
Although two-dimensional-dobutamine stress echocardiography (2D-DSE) is useful for the diagnosis of myocardial ischaemia, it requires the acquisition of multiple cross-sections at each stage. The introduction of new real-time three-dimensional echocardiography (RT3DE) offers rapid acquisition and 3D display of the entire left ventricle (LV). The purpose was to evaluate real-time three-dimensional-dobutamine stress echocardiography (RT3D-DSE) for the diagnosis of ischaemia using exercise (201)Tl single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) as the reference standard, in comparison with 2D-DSE.


RESULTS
We performed DSE in 56 consecutive patients who had undergone SPECT because of suspected ischaemia. 3D images by RT3DE were acquired from the apical window after the acquisition of cross-sectional images at every stage of 2D-DSE. Wall motion analysis in RT3DE was performed from anatomical images by cropping the acquired full volume data sets. Mean scanning time for adequate image acquisition at peak stress by RT3D-DSE was shorter than that by 2D-DSE (29+/-4 vs. 68+/-6 s, P<0.0001). RT3DE provided adequate images at success rate of 92% at rest and 89% at peak stress, whereas two-dimensional echocardiography did at 94 and 90%, respectively. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of RT3D-DSE for the detection of coronary artery disease are 86, 80, and 82%, respectively. Those of 2D-DSE are 86, 83, and 84%, respectively. There were no significant differences in the sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy between these two methods (P=1.000).


CONCLUSIONS
RT3D-DSE offers rapid and simple acquisition of the entire LV wall motion and provides feasible and accurate assessment of myocardial ischaemia.
Matsumura
Yoshiki
Y
The Department of Internal Medicine and Cardiology, Osaka City University Medical School, Abeno-ku, Osaka 545 8585, Japan.
Hozumi
Takeshi
T
Arai
Kotaro
K
Sugioka
Kenichi
K
Ujino
Keiji
K
Takemoto
Yasuhiko
Y
Yamagishi
Hiroyuki
H
Yoshiyama
Minoru
M
Yoshikawa
Junichi
J
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D025401:Echocardiography, Stress; D019560:Echocardiography, Three-Dimensional; D005080:Exercise Test; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017202:Myocardial Ischemia / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon / Q000379:methods; D018487:Ventricular Dysfunction, Left / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*