Gender differences in bicycle exercise stress echocardiography testing

Background: Sex-specific differences for myocardial infarction and coronary artery disease (CAD) have been reported in several studies. The aim of our present study was to identify gender-specific differences regarding bicycle-exercise-stress-echocardiography. Methods: We compared 87 (69.0%) male and 39 (31.0%) female patients with suspected or known stable coronary artery disease (CAD), who underwent bicycle-exercise stress-echocardiography. Results: False-positive exercise-test results were more prevalent in females (21.1% vs. 17.4%) and arterial hypertension was connected with false-positive results in women only. In males, higher peak-exercise heart-rate was accompanied by lower risk of false-positive stress-echocardiography results. Higher systolic peak blood pressure during exercise was related to a higher risk for pending coronary artery interventions in females, whereas higher peak heart-rate during exercise was accompanied by a lower risk for pending coronary artery interventions also in females. Conclusions: Exercise-echocardiography demonstrated significant sex-specific differences. Higher efforts during stress-test lead to better test-accuracy. (C) 2018 Association for Research into Arterial Structure and Physiology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.