Usefulness of coronary flow reserve over regional wall motion when added to dual-imaging dipyridamole echocardiography.

Vasodilator stress echocardiography allows semi-simultaneous imaging of left anterior descending (LAD) coronary flow and regional wall function. To assess the relative (and additive?) value of regional flow and function for noninvasive identification of angiographically assessed LAD disease in patients with chest pain syndrome, we studied 230 consecutive in-hospital patients (134 men, aged 63.5 +/- 11 years) with chest pain syndrome and normal regional and global left ventricular function.