VERTICAL VELOERGOMETRY AND TRANSOESOPHAGEAL STRESS ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY

Abstract

Transoesophageal (TE) assess in stress echocardiography (EchoCG) enables us to overcome the principal limitation of the method – poor visualization quality in patients with “non-diagnostic windows”. Currently, physical stress is regarded as the safest method for inducing possible myocardial ischemia, with an equivalent increase in both myocardial contractility and heart rate. A combination of TE EchoCG and veloergometry (VEM) appears to be an optimal, inexpensive method of visualization-based diagnostics of coronary heart disease (CHD). At the same time, the potential of this method is limited by its emetogenicity. The study of diagnostic accuracy of TE stress EchoCG in combination with VEM, performed according to the STARD statement, demonstrated high sensitivity (91%) and specificity (92%) of this method. Gradual changes in ejection fraction facilitated the assessment of left ventricular inotropic reserve, which was minimal in patients with severe coronary artery stenosis. The endoscope position did not affect forced breathing, and the discomfort was similar to that during routine fibrogastros-copy, due to the use of low Ondansetron doses and limited load phase of the test.

Keywords

• echocardiography
• transoesophageal access
• veloergometry
• coronary heart disease diagnostics
• high sensitivity and specificity of the method