The Prognostic Value of the Diastolic Stress Test in Patients Undergoing Treadmill Stress Echocardiography

Abstract

Background: Exercise stress echocardiography (SE) is well validated for the evaluation of myocardial ischemia. Diastolic stress testing (DST) is recommended in the 2016 American Society of Echocardiography and European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging Guidelines for unexplained dyspnea. This study's aim was to prognostically evaluate the DST prospectively in a large stress testing population. Methods: Patients underwent SE with mitral E/e' measured before and after maximal treadmill exertion to estimate diastolic function. Patients were divided into four groups: group 1 (n = 201)—ischemic; group 2 (n = 1,563)—negative DST (E/e'pre < 12, E/e'post < 12); group 3 (n = 68)—positive DST (E/e..