Dobutamine stress echocardiography as a prognostic tool for future cardiac events

The role of exercise stress testing for diagnosis of coronary artery disease and risk stratification of patients with coronary artery disease is well established. Echocardiographic imaging immediately after exercise increases the sensitivity and specificity of the test. Pharmacological agents (dobutamine) have been used as an alternative for stress in patients who are unable to exercise due to various reasons. The capac-­ity of dobutamine stress echocardiography (DSE) to identify the presence or absence of angiographically sig-­nificant coronary artery disease (CAD) has been dem-­onstrated in several studies. The role of DSE in pre-­dicting future cardiac events along with its sensitivity and specificity has been studied and found to be high. No study has been done in Pakistan regarding DSE as a prognostic tool for future cardiac events. We conducted a retrospective study to determine the prognostic value of DSE in our population.