What is the prognostic value of dobutamine-atropine stress echocardiography?
Dobutamine-atropine stress echocardiography has been shown to have a long-term prognostic value in predicting survival outcomes and morbid cardiac events in patients with single- and double-vessel disease, as demonstrated by the Angioplasty Compared to Medicine (ACME) Study (Parisi et al., 1997). It has also been shown to have a prognostic value in predicting peri-operative and late cardiac events in patients scheduled for vascular surgery (Poldermans et al., 1997) and in diabetic patients (Kamalesh et al., 2002). Furthermore, its incremental value when used in conjunction with wall motion analysis and strain rate imaging has been demonstrated (Bjork Ingul et al., 2007). Overall, dobutamine-atropine stress echocardiography has been shown to have a strong prognostic value in predicting cardiac outcomes.  