Prognostic value of peak and post-exercise treadmill exercise echocardiography in patients with known or suspected coronary artery disease.
OBJECTIVE
Although peak may have higher sensitivity than post-treadmill exercise echocardiography (EE) for the detection of coronary artery disease (CAD), its prognostic value remains unknown. We sought to assess the relative values of peak and post-EE for predicting outcome in patients with known/suspected CAD.


RESULTS
We studied 2947 patients who underwent EE. Wall motion score index (WMSI) was evaluated at rest, peak, and post-exercise. Ischaemia was defined as the development of new or worsening wall motion abnormalities with exercise. Separate analyses for all-cause mortality and major cardiac events (MACE) were performed. Ischaemia developed in 544 patients (18.5%). Among them, ischaemia was detected only at peak exercise in 124 patients (23%), whereas 414 (76%) had ischaemia at peak plus post-exercise imaging and six patients (1%) had ischaemia only at post-exercise. During follow-up, 164 patients died. The 5-year mortality rate was 3.5% in patients without ischaemia, 15.3% in patients with peak ischaemia alone, and 14% in patients with post-exercise ischaemia (P < 0.001 normal vs. ischaemic groups). In the multivariate analysis, post-exercise WMSI was an independent predictor of MACE [hazard ratio (HR) 1.87, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.09-2.19, P = 0.02]. Peak exercise WMSI was an independent predictor of MACE (HR 2.19, 95% CI 1.30-3.69, P = 0.003) and mortality (HR 1.58, 95% CI 1.07-2.35, P = 0.02). The addition of peak EE results to clinical, resting echocardiography, exercise variables, and post-EE provided incremental prognostic information for MACE (P = 0.04) and mortality (P = 0.04).


CONCLUSIONS
Peak treadmill EE provides significant incremental information over post-EE for predicting outcome in patients with known or suspected CAD.
Peteiro
Jesús
J
Department of Cardiology, Complejo Hospitalario Universitario de A Coruña, As Xubias 84, A Coruña, Spain. pete@canalejo.org
Bouzas-Mosquera
Alberto
A
Broullón
Francisco J
FJ
Garcia-Campos
Ana
A
Pazos
Pablo
P
Castro-Beiras
Alfonso
A
D000368:Aged; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000401:mortality*; D025401:Echocardiography, Stress / Q000401:mortality; D004562:Electrocardiography; D015444:Exercise / Q000502:physiology*; D005080:Exercise Test / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017202:Myocardial Ischemia / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000401:mortality; D015588:Observer Variation; D011379:Prognosis