Author(s)

A. K. Macpherson, S. Neti, C. Chutakositkanon, M. Averbach & P. A. Macpherson

Abstract

Dobutamine stress echocardiography is a common test to provoke myocardial ischemia in patients unable to undergo routine exercise stress testing. Heart rate elevation, achieved by staged increases in dobutamine doses, acts as a surrogate for exercise. The physicians monitor the ECG of the patient and echocardiographic images to evaluate for myocardial ischemia. However, the actual mechanical stress on the heart is not readily available to the physician. The motivation for the present preliminary study is to both investigate the feasibility of producing such information for clinicians as well as to investigate the variation between different patients as the heart rate varies. Echocardiograms were obtained from three patients undergoing dobutamine stress tests. Using standard equations of motion, the surface shear stress at the surface of the left ventricle was calculated. The average shear stress around the left ventricle is shown, as well as the peak stresses at selected locations as a function of time. It was found that generally the surface shear stress increased with heart rate around most of the left ventricle. While the time averaged shear stress may be important for diagnosis, the maximum shear stress is probably the limiting factor in terminating testing. Keywords: heart stress, dobutamine testing, heart rate, heart diagnosis.

Keywords

heart stress, dobutamine testing, heart rate, heart diagnosis.