What is dobutamine stress echocardiography? Cardiology Basics

What is dobutamine stress echocardiography? Cardiology Basics Usual stress test for the heart is exercise ECG in which serial ECG recordings are done during a graded exercise protocol, usually on a treadmill. There are certain conditions like left bundle branch block in which an exercise ECG becomes uninterpretable. Some persons are unable to exercise on a treadmill due to illness or disability. In such situations dobutamine infusion is given instead of exercise, to increase heart rate and myocardial contractility, thereby increasing the workload of myocardium. Echocardiograms are taken then to assess the response of the myocardium to stress. This is known as dobutamine stress echocardiography. Just like the graded exercise program, the dobutamine infusion is also given in a graded fashion, starting at a lower dose. Ischemic but viable myocardium will show improvement in contraction at lower dose. At higher dose of dobutamine, ischemia worsens and the contraction of such regions of myocardium will decrease. This is a biphasic response of ischemic viable myocardium to dobutamine stress. If a region of myocardium is scarred and non-viable, it will not contract at all and there is no response to dobutamine infusion. A region of myocardium which is not contracting is designated as akinetic. The abnormality seen on echocardiography in that region is called akinesia. If a region of myocardium is contracting less than the normal regions, it is called hypokinesia. If a part of the my...
Source: Cardiophile MD - Category: Cardiology Authors: Tags: General Cardiology Source Type: blogs