Title:The Fundamental Role of Stress Echo in Evaluating Coronary Artery Disease
in Specific Patient Populations
Volume: 20
Issue: 2
Author(s): Leonidas Raftopoulos*, Constantina Aggeli, Yannis Dimitroglou, Vasiliki Kakiouzi, Dimitrios Tsartsalis, Dimitrios Patsourakos and Costas Tsioufis
Affiliation:
- First Department of Cardiology, University of Athens Medical School, General Hospital of Athens Hippokration,
Athens, Greece
Keywords:
Stress echocardiography, myocardial bridge, cirrhosis, chronic kidney disease, cardiac allograft vasculopathy, noncardiac surgery, cancer therapy.
Abstract: Stress echocardiography (SE) was initially used for assessing patients with known or suspected
coronary heart disease by detecting and evaluating myocardial ischemia and viability. The
implementation of SE has gradually been extended to several cardiovascular diseases beyond coronary
artery disease, and SE protocols have been modified and adapted for the detection of coronary
artery disease (CAD) or other cardiovascular diseases in specific patient populations. This review
attempts to summarize current data concerning SE implementation and clinical value in these specific
and diverse populations: patients with an intramural course of a coronary artery, known as a
myocardial bridge, chronic severe or end-stage hepatic disease, chronic severe or end-stage kidney
disease, cardiac allograft vasculopathy, patients scheduled for solid-organ transplantation and other
intermediate and high-risk surgery and, finally, patients treated with anticancer drugs or radiotherapy.