906-65 Use of Color-coded Tissue Doppler for Dobutamine-Stress-Echocardiography

In order to improve analysis of regional wall motion color-coded tissue Doppler-echocardiography (TOE) 14 dobutamine-stress-echocardiograms (DSE) (5–40μg/kg/min) were performed to detect left ventricular myocardial tissue and to measure left ventricular myocardial velocity (WMV) during contractile stimulation. The patients (pts) were divided into 11 with known 23 vessel coronary artery disease (CAD) including LAD-stenosis and a normal group (N) of 3 without CAD. At phases rest (R), low dose (LD=10μg/kg/min) and peak exercise (PE) we registered with TOE a 2-dimensional echo at RAOview and at parasternal long axis with a M-mode registration, respectively. Measurements of myocardial velocities were performed by placing a point of interest in the middle part of each AHA-segment in each frame covering one heart cycle (frame rate=26–36/s).ResultsThe mean WMV in the N group increased during low-dose dobutamine infusion from 43±11 to 49±11mm/s and during high dose infusion to 58±17mm/s, whereas in the CAD-group the mean WMV were 31±12 (R), 33±11 (LD) and 37±15mm/s (PE) respectively. In pts with CAD during dobutamine-infusion the beginning of systolic contraction detected by TDE-M-Mode-registration was delayed in comparison to normal subjects.ConclusionDetection of exercise-induced decrease of myocardial velocity by combination of color-coded tissue Doppler-echocardiography and dobutamine-stress-echocardiography is a new valuable method for detection of regional impairment of left ventricular wall function