OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether the addition of a contrast agent to dobutamine stress echocardiography (DSE) improves its diagnostic accuracy for coronary artery disease (CAD) and to determine the effect of image quality on the diagnostic impact of contrast agent use in this setting. BACKGROUND Contrast agents can improve endocardial border definition. To date, ho...

Dobutamine stress echocardiography (DSE) is an accurate non-invasive technique for detecting coronary artery disease and is a test which has significant prognostic value in clinical practice, both in detecting viability and in risk stratification. However, the current clinical implementation of the technique is based solely on the visual detection of ischaemia-induced radial wall motion abnorma...

OBJECTIVE To assess the prospective relationship between spiritual experiences and health in a sample of patients surviving an acute myocardial infarction (AMI) with depression or low social support. METHODS A subset of 503 patients participating in the enhancing recovery in coronary heart disease (ENRICHD) trial completed a Daily Spiritual Experiences (DSE) questionnaire within 28 days from ...

Acute myocardial infarction during high-dose dobutamine stress echocardiography (DSE) has been reported in patients with no indication of severe obstructive coronary artery disease, but the mechanism of thrombosis remains unclear. We hypothesized that an increase in platelet and hemostatic activation secondary to high dose dobutamine might be a contributing factor. Twelve patients undergoing ou...

AIMS Doppler myocardial imaging (DMI) has been suggested as a method of quantifying induced ischaemia during dobutamine stress echocardiography (DSE). The aim of the present study was to investigate both standard systolic and diastolic parameters, but more specifically to address the phenomenon of post-systolic motion (PSM) as a marker of acquired ischaemia during DSE using pulsed-wave DMI. M...

OBJECTIVES This study was designed to address, in patients with severe ischemic left ventricular dysfunction, whether dobutamine stress echocardiography (DSE) can predict improvement of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), functional status and long-term prognosis after revascularization. BACKGROUND Dobutamine stress echocardiography can predict improvement of wall motion after revascul...

AIMS Myocardial contrast perfusion echocardiography (MCE) allows simultaneous assessment of perfusion and function. However, low frame rate during MCE may reduce the viewer's ability to discern contractile dysfunction. This study sought to compare MCE and left ventricular opacification (LVO) settings with regard to wall motion abnormalities (WMA) at rest and during dobutamine stress echocardiog...

Chondroitin sulfate (CS)/dermatan sulfate (DS) proteoglycans are abundant on the cell surface and in the extracellular matrix and have important functions in matrix structure, cell-matrix interaction and signaling. The DS epimerases 1 and 2, encoded by Dse and Dsel, respectively, convert CS to a CS/DS hybrid chain, which is structurally and conformationally richer than CS, favouring interaction...

Design space exploration (DSE) is a common yet complex workflow in oilfield asset development. The “design” of an oilfield refers to a set of decisions about aspects ranging from well locations and number to facility sizing for optimum production. Evaluation of alternate designs – based extensively on reservoir simulations – corresponds to the evaluation of alternate development scenarios in fa...

BACKGROUND Non-invasive diagnosis and risk stratification of coronary artery disease are important for the selection and optimization of therapeutic interventions in diabetic patients, which may improve survival. The aim of this study was to determine the incremental value of contrast-enhanced dobutamine stress echocardiography (CE-DSE) for risk stratification. METHODS AND RESULTS CE-DSE was ...