Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Comparative Study
. 2013 Aug 20:11:30.
doi: 10.1186/1476-7120-11-30.

Stress echocardiography: safety and tolerability

Nada Fennich  1 , Fedoua Ellouali, Salima Abdelali, Assad Chaara, Allal Berrada, Imane Elhajjaji, Rhizlane Cherradi, Saadia Abir, Nawal Doghmi, Mohammed Cherti
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Stress echocardiography: safety and tolerability

Nada Fennich et al. Cardiovasc Ultrasound. .

Abstract

Background: Stress echocardiography is a valuable tool for the noninvasive diagnosis of ischemic heart disease. Despite its widely use in the clinical practice, safety and side effects profile have never been evaluated in Moroccans.

The aim: To assess the safety and tolerability of the two stress echo modalities in Moroccans.

Methods: The study was made by 311 patients with known or suspected coronary artery disease, 203 underwent exercise echocardiography and 108 underwent dobutamine echocardiography, major and minor rhythmic complications and side effects were recorded for the two groups.

Results: We registered 3 (2, 8%) major rhythmic events in the dobutamine group (2 sustained supraventricular tachycardia and 1 sustained ventricular tachycardia), there was no major rhythmic events in the exercise group. Minor rhythmic events were frequent (43, 5% in the dobutamine group and 19, 2% in the exercise group with a p = 0, 0001). Severe hypotension occurs in 4 (3, 7%) patients during a dobutamine stress, there was no significant drop in the blood pressure during exercise stress procedures. Non cardiac side effects were more common among patients who underwent a dobutamine stress echo (13, 9% vs. 3, 4% with p = 0,001).

Conclusion: Exercise is safer than dobutamine stress echocardiography, complications and adverse effects with the use of dobutamine are usually minor and self-limiting.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Electrocardiogram showing a run of ventricular tachycardia.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Lang R, Bierig M, Devereux R, Flachskampf F, Foster E, Pellikka P. et al. Recommendations for chamber quantification: a report from the American Society of Echocardiography’s guidelines and standards committee and the chamber quantification writing group, developed in conjunction with the European Association of Echocardiography, a branch of the European Society of Cardiology. J Am Soc Echocardiogr. 2005;18:1440–1463. doi: 10.1016/j.echo.2005.10.005. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Senior R, Lahiri A. Enhanced detection of myocardial ischemia by stress dobutamine echocardiography utilizing the “biphasic” response of wall thickening during low and high dose dobutamine infusion. J Am Coll Cardiol. 1995;26:26–32. doi: 10.1016/0735-1097(95)00139-Q. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Varga A, Rodriguez Garcia MA, Picano E. Safety of stress echocardiography (from the international stress echo complication registry) Am J Cardiol. 2006;98:541–543. doi: 10.1016/j.amjcard.2006.02.064. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Geleijnse ML, Krenning BJ, Nemes A, van Dalen BM, Soliman OI, Ten Cate FJ, Schinkel AF, Boersma E, Simoons ML. Incidence, pathophysiology, and treatment of complications during dobutamine-atropine stress echocardiography. Circulation. 2010;121(15):1756–1767. doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.109.859264. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Mertes H, Sawada SG, Ryan T. et al. Symptoms, adverse effects, and complications associated with dobutamine stress echocardiography. Experience in 1118 patients. Circulation. 1993;88:15e9. - PubMed

Publication types