DOI

Background: Several recent studies have reported the opportunity to diagnose significant narrowing of the coronary arteries without stress testing using local flow acceleration. Purpose: To define how often patients with increased coronary flow velocities at rest (≥ 0.70 m/s) have a positive exercise echocardiography test. Material and Methods: A total of 150 patients scheduled for exercise echocardiography were studied using transthoracic Doppler echocardiography in order to assess coronary artery flow velocity before exercise. Pulsed wave Doppler registered blood flow velocity placed on the color signal. The maximal diastolic velocity of coronary flow was measured. Results: Of participants, 16% had a velocity of more than 0.70 m/s in the left main/proximal left anterior/proximal left circumflex arteries (LM/pLAD). A significant correlation was observed between the value of the maximal velocity in LM/pLAD and the ejection fraction at the peak of exercise (r ≈ –0.39, P < 0.0001); between the value of the maximal velocity in LM/pLAD and index of wall motion abnormalities (IWMA) at the peak of exercise (r ≈ 0.44, P < 0.0001); and between the value of the maximal velocity in LM/pLAD and dIWMA (r ≈ 0.41, P < 0.0001). Afterwards, severe ischemia in stress echocardiography tests was observed in this group. The average IWMA of these tests was found to be 2.3. Sixty-two angiograms were available for comparison with Doppler data. Conclusion: There is a significant correlation between the value of the maximal velocity in LM/pLAD/pLCx at rest and the severity of wall motion abnormalities during exercise tests.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)664-671
Number of pages8
JournalActa Radiologica
Volume59
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jun 2018

    Research areas

  • coronary artery Doppler, Doppler flow aliasing, exercise stress echo, Transthoracic echocardiography

    Scopus subject areas

  • Radiological and Ultrasound Technology
  • Radiology Nuclear Medicine and imaging

ID: 43611866