Negative stress echocardiographic responses in normotensive and hypertensive patients with angina pectoris, positive exercise stress testing, and normal coronary arteriograms

Abstract

Neither hypertensive nor normotensive CPNA patients developed regional wall motion abnormalities during dobutamine stress echocardiography, despite the high prevalence of scintigraphic perfusion defects in both groups and the presence of chest pain and ST segment depression. Thus myocardial ischaemia was not present in either group, or else dobutamine stress echocardiography is insensitive to ischaemia caused by microvascular dysfunction.