Usefulness of isometric hand grip exercise in detecting coronary artery disease during dobutamine atropine stress echocardiography in patients with either stable angina pectoris or another type of positive stress test.

Dobutamine atropine stress echocardiography (DASE) detects coronary artery disease (CAD) by increasing myocardial oxygen demand causing ischemia. The sensitivity of the test for detection of CAD is reduced in patients with submaximal stress. We hypothesized that increasing cardiac work load by adding isometric exercise would improve the detection of ischemia during DASE.