Exercise stress echocardiography in the identification of coronary artery disease in the elderly with chronotropic incompetence.

Background: Chronotropic incompetence (CTI) is frequent in elderly patients and may limit the role of the exercise test in the identification of coronary artery disease (CAD) in this population.

Objective: To assess the value of CTI in an elderly population in the diagnosis of CAD.

Methods: A total of 3,308 patients were studied, 804 were elderly individuals (age > 65 years) who underwent exercise stress echocardiography (ESE).