Dipyridamole Echocardiography vs Treadmill Exercise in Patients with Coronary Artery Disease

The value of exercise electrocardiography is limited in detecting coronary artery disease (CAD) in some patients. dipyridamole echocardiography (DE) is gaining popularity as being an exercise-independent test for the diagnosis of CAD. To compare their sensitivity and specificity we conducted DE and treadmill stress testing in 61 patients with angina pectoris suspected to have CAD. The two tests were performed on different days an in random order. Dipyridamole was administered up to 0.9 mg/kg for ten minutes. DE testing was positive in 18 of 28 (64 %) patients with single-vessel disease and 18 of 24 (75 %) patients with multivessel disease. The overall sensitivity of DE was 69 % for the presence of CAD, while for treadmill stress testing this was 64 %. The specificity of both of the tests was 100 %. When abnormalities of DE were evaluated together with ST segment depression during dipyridamole infusion, the sensitivity of dipyridamole test increased to 80 %. No major complication occurred during either test. Thus, DE demonstrated a similar overall sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of CAD as compared with treadmill testing.