Prognostic value of dipyridamole echocardiography testing

The aim of this study was to follow the results of dipyridamole echocardiography testing (DET) in 105 patients (mean age 53.2 ± 8.5 years) with suspected ischemic heart disease. The follow-up period was 31.4 ± 4.2 months. Twenty-nine patients had a positive DET result, and 76 a negative one. Fifty-two of the 105 underwent coronarography, and the remainder had no heart catheterization. In the follow-up study, the patients' subjective condition and the new heart events (angina, infarction, coronary bypass surgery, and death) were registered. The new heart events were more frequent in the DET-positive group than the negative one (45% vs 22%; p < 0.05). In the coronarography-positive and -negative group these values were 77% and 10%, respectively ( p < 0.001). In the coronarography- and DET-positive group the frequency of new cardiac events was 69%. This value was only 10% in the coronarography- and DET-negative group. The difference between the true-positive and true-negative groups was highly significant ( p < 0.001). Coronarography was found to be a good predictor of future cardiac events, however, the noninvasive dipyridamole echocardiography testing was also an appropriate method for follow-up.