Stress Echocardiography

Excerpt

Stress echocardiography combines two-dimensional echocardiography with a physical, pharmacological, or less commonly, electrical stress with atrial pacing. Stress-induced ischemia generates new or worsening wall motion abnormalities in the segment supplied by the stenosed coronary artery. Stress echocardiography plays an important role in identifying these wall motion abnormalities in the assessment of ischemic heart disease, and also plays a vital role in the evaluation of systolic or diastolic heart failure, valvular pathologies, nonischemic cardiomyopathy, pulmonary hypertension, and congenital heart disease.