Measurement of arterial distensibility and compliance to assess prognosis.

Background And Aim: Total arterial compliance (TAC) reflects arterial function in the entire systemic circulation while distensibility coefficient (DC) is an estimate of local arterial compliance obtained from large elastic arteries. There are few studies relating TAC or DC to outcome. We sought whether DC or TAC predicted outcome in a primary prevention cohort with a spectrum of cardiovascular risk.

Incremental value of strain rate analysis as an adjunct to wall-motion scoring for assessment of myocardial viability by dobutamine echocardiography: a follow-up study after revascularization.

Background: Assessment of myocardial viability based on wall-motion scoring (WMS) during dobutamine echocardiography (DbE) is difficult and subjective. Strain-rate imaging (SRI) is quantitative, but its incremental value over WMS for prediction of functional recovery after revascularization is unclear.

Methods And Results: DbE and SRI were performed in 55 stable patients (mean age, 64+/-10 years; mean ejection fraction, 36+/-8%) with previous myocardial infarction.

Screening for coronary artery disease in patients with diabetes: a Bayesian strategy of clinical risk evaluation and exercise echocardiography.

Objective: Screening for coronary artery disease is constrained by its low prevalence in unselected patients. We compared the ability of clinical scores to identify a high-risk group with diabetes mellitus and investigated a Bayesian strategy by combination with exercise echocardiography (ExE).

Methods: The Framingham risk score (FRS), a score based on the American Diabetes Association (ADA) screening guidelines, the United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS) risk engine, and a disease-specific diabetic cardiac risk score (DCRS) were calculated in 199 asymptomatic patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus undergoing ExE.