Usefulness of high-dose dipyridamole echocardiography test in coronary angioplasty.

Seventy-four consecutive patients with angina undergoing single-lesion percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty were evaluated with high-dose (up to 0.84 mg/kg during 10 minutes) dipyridamole echocardiography test (DET) before angioplasty and when possible, afterward. Angioplasty was clinically or angiographically successful in 63 patients and unsuccessful in 11. Before the procedure, 69 patients had a positive DET. Of these 69 patients, six with clinicall unsuccessful angioplasty had a dipyridamole time (i.e., the time from the onset of dipyridamole infusion to development of asynergy) lower than the 63 patients with clinically successfully angioplasty (4.2 +/- 2.9 vs. 7.0 +/- 2.9 minutes, mean +/- SD, p less than 0.01). In the five patients with angiographically unsuccessful angioplasty (residual stenosis diameter, greater than 50%), coronary stenosis decreased from 89 +/- 10 to 69 +/- 22 (p = NS); DET was positive in all five before and in four of the five after the procedure (100% vs. 80%, p = NS). In the 63 patients with angiographically successful angioplasty, coronary stenosis diameter was reduced from 85 +/- 9% to 30 +/- 10% (p less than 0.01). DET was positive in 58 patients before and in only 16 after the procedure (92% vs. 25%, p less than 0.01). In the 16 patients with positive DET, before and after angioplasty, dipyridamole time increased from 5.6 +/- 2.2 before to 7.3 +/- 2.4 minutes immediately after the procedure (p less than 0.05). After an average follow-up time of 10.8 +/- 5.9 months, angina recurred in eight of 47 patients with negative DET after angioplasty and in 11 of 16 patients with positive DET (17% vs. 69%, p less than 0.01).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)