Color kinesis-dobutamine stress echocardiography pinpoints coronary artery disease

Background/Aim: Dobutamine stress echocardiography (DSE) can identify significant coronary artery disease (CAD) and where it is localized. However, determining endocardial borders with poor echocardiographic views may create unsatisfactory results. Color kinesis (CK) shows endocardial movement with color, and allows easier and more objective evaluation of ventricular wall motion. In this study, our aim was to evaluate the role of CK in determining CAD localization during DSE. Methods: The study group consists of patients whose CAD diagnosis was confirmed with coronary angiography (CA). Patients with atrial fibrillation (A-Fib), left bundle branch block, poor echocardiography image quality, left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction < 40%, and non-ischemic LV wall motion abnormality were excluded. CK-DSE and dobutamine stress-induced myocardial perfusion scintigraphy (MPS) was done in all patients and compared to CA. Results: A total of twenty patients [16 males (80%) and 4 females (20%)] were included in the study. CK-DSE results were consistent with CA in determining CAD localization (kappa 0.66). Vessel-based kappa values for LAD, RCA, and Cx were 0.81, 0.70 and 0.61, respectively. Consistency between MPS and CK-DSE was evaluated by the area under curves (AUC) within a ROC curve analysis (p > 0.05, 95% CI). Conclusion: Our study showed that CK allows for rapid, objective, and automatic evaluation of segmental wall motion. In addition, CK-DSE is consistent with CA results.