Dobutamine stress echocardiography in clinical practice with a review of the recent literature.

Stress echocardiography has been developed in recent years as an effective noninvasive test for the detection and assessment of coronary artery disease. This method combines exercise with 2-dimensional echocardiography, which can assess regional and global left ventricular function during stress. Dobutamine infusion, a pharmacologic means of producing cardiovascular stress, appears to be an excellent alternative to exercise in echocardiographic studies. Currently, it is reserved for patients who cannot exercise at a meaningful level because of advanced age, physical deconditioning, or other factors. This review evaluates the current clinical application of dobutamine stress echocardiography and compares its efficacy with that of exercise echocardiography and nuclear perfusion imaging.