Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of real-time three-dimensional dobutamine stress echocardiography for coronary artery disease assessment.
Methods: A total of 14 patients suspected of coronary artery disease (CAD) underwent real-time three-dimensional dobutamine stress echocardiography. The initial infusion rate of dobutamine was 5 µg×kg⁻¹ ×min⁻¹, followed by 10 µg×kg⁻¹×min⁻¹ and peak infusion 20 µg×kg⁻¹×min⁻¹ in 3 min stages. At baseline state, stress stages and after the study, the real-time three-dimensional (RT3D) images were captured and assessed by wall motion score index (WMSI) and regional ejection fraction (rEF). And the parameters of these two modalities versus coronary angiography (CAG) were compared and analyzed. Adverse reactions were also observed.
Results: All patients completed the stress study uneventfully. As compared with CAG, these two modalities showed no significant difference (P > 0.05) and satisfactory agreement (κ values of 0.704 and 0.759 respectively). The diagnostic parameters of these modalities were: sensitivity (78% vs 89%), specificity (92% vs 88%), positive predictive value (PPV) (88% vs 84%), negative predictive value (NPV) (85% vs 91%) and overall accuracy (86% vs 88%).
Conclusion: Real-time three-dimensional dobutamine stress echocardiography is an effective, rapid and safe technique of assessing coronary artery disease. It is worthy of wider clinical applications.