Diagnosis of coronary artery disease in patients with permanent cardiac pacemaker by dobutamine stress echocardiography or exercise thallium-201 myocardial tomography.

This study evaluated the use of dobutamine stress echocardiography and exercise thallium-201 myocardial computed tomography (CT) in the diagnosis of coronary artery disease (CAD) in patients with permanent transvenous pacemaker with the electrode implanted in the right ventricle (RV). Twenty-nine consecutive patients with pacemaker underwent dobutamine stress echocardiography, exercise thallium-201 myocardial CT, and coronary arteriography over a period of 8 +/- 1 days. None of these patients had suffered a myocardial infarction (MI).