A 79-year-old man presented with increasing breathlessness and his echocardiogram revealed severe left ventricular systolic dysfunction and low-flow low-gradient aortic stenosis. Low-dose dobutamine stress echocardiography revealed the absence of contractile reserve (increase of stroke volume by ≥20% did not occur). The test would have therefore been inconclusive. However, the attainment of normal flow (FR≥200 mL/s) during dobutamine stress enabled the diagnosis of true severe aortic stenosis.
Keywords: aortic stenosis; low-flow low-gradient stress echocardiography.
© 2016, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.