Prognostic significance of treadmill stress-echocardiography in patients with ischemic heart disease

Prognostic value of treadmill-echocardiography was studied in 146 patients (125 men, 21 women, age 58,6 9 years) with overt or suspected ischemic heart disease. During 35 6 months of follow-up there were 26 cardiac events (11 cardiovascular deaths, 6 myocardial infarctions and 9 revascularization procedures). Independent predictors of events were presence of angina, maximal heart rate, and result of a stress test. Both exercise tolerance and echocardiographical signs of ischemia were related to development of events however the latter had better predictive power. Among patients with exercise tolerance below 7 METS with and without ischemia rates of events were 33 and 11%, respectively. Among patients with exercise tolerance above 7 METS with and without ischemia event rates were 23 and 6.8%, respectively.