Obese sedentary patients with dyspnoea on exertion who are at low risk for coronary artery disease by clinical criteria have a very low prevalence of coronary artery disease

Dyspnoea, a much less specific symptom of ischaemia than chest discomfort, is common among obese patients. Patients with dyspnoea often undergo stress testing as part of their evaluation. We sought to examine the yield of stress testing in non-elderly, obese, sedentary patients with dyspnoea on exertion (DOE) as a chief complaint.We reviewed stress echocardiograms carried out on 203 patients in a stress testing laboratory at a major tertiary care centre. Of these, 81 (40%) fell into a group that was at low risk for coronary artery disease (CAD) by clinical criteria. Ischaemia was detected in two patients in the low-risk group (2.5%), and these results were likely false positives. In the higher risk group, 9.0% of functional tests showed ischaemia; after further testing, 2.5% of the higher risk patients were found to have obstructive coronary lesions. Clinical follow-up was performed for a mean of 815 days. New obstructive coronary disease was detected in 1.6% of all patients, and these patients were from the higher risk group. In obese sedentary patients with DOE but otherwise at low risk of coronary disease stress testing is of very low yield. DOE is generally not an anginal equivalent in this patient population.