Prognostic value of pharmacological stress echocardiography in women with chest pain and unknown coronary artery disease

Objectives. In this study we sought to investigate the prognostic value of pharmacological stress echocardiography in women referred for chest pain, having unknown coronary artery disease.

Background. The noninvasive identification of a high-risk subgroup among women with chest pain and unknown coronary artery disease is an unresolved task to date.

Methods. A total of 456 women (mean [±SD] age 63 ± 10 years) underwent pharmacological stress echocardiography with either dipyridamole (n = 305) or dobutamine (n = 151) for evaluation of chest pain and were followed-up for 32 ± 19 months. None of them had a previous diagnosis of coronary artery disease.

Results. No major complication occurred during stress testing. Five tests (1.1%) were prematurely interrupted because of the appearance of side effects. Echocardiographic positivity was identified in 51 patients. During the follow-up, 23 cardiac events occurred: 3 deaths, 10 infarctions and 10 cases of unstable angina; an additional 21 patients underwent coronary revascularization. At Cox analysis, the echocardiographic evidence of ischemia was found as the only independent predictor of hard cardiac events (death, infarction) (odds ratio [OR] = 27.5; 95% confidence interval [CI] = (6.5 to 115.5; p = 0.0000). When spontaneous cardiac events (death, infarction and unstable angina) were considered as endpoints, the positive echocardiographic result (OR = 23.9; 95% CI = 8.6 to 66.8; p = 0.0000) and family history of coronary artery disease (OR = 3.7; 95% CI = 1.5 to 9.1; p = 0.0037) were independently correlated with prognosis. By using an interactive stepwise procedure, the prognostic value of stress echocardiography was found to be incremental to that provided by clinical variables, both considering hard and spontaneous cardiac events as endpoints. The 3-year survival rate for the negative and the positive population was respectively, 99.5% and 69.5% (p = 0.0000) considering hard cardiac events, 99.2% and 50.6% (p = 0.0000) considering spontaneous cardiac events.

Conclusions. Pharmacological stress echocardiography is safe, highly feasible and effective in risk stratification of women with chest pain and unknown coronary artery disease, also when hard endpoints are considered. Its use can have relevant implications in daily clinical practice for selection of patients needing further investigations.