Evidence map›Paper›PMID 18373873›Full record

ArticleCardiovascular ultrasound2008

Feasibility and diagnostic power of transthoracic coronary Doppler for coronary flow velocity reserve in patients referred for myocardial perfusion imaging.

Eva Maret, Jan Engvall, Eva Nylander, Jan Ohlsson

Open access · goldAbstract readComparative StudyEvaluation Study
In one paragraph

Article in Cardiovascular ultrasound, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact, top 78% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed, 4 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Trial
  2. Guideline on Stress Echocardiography - 2026.Arquivos brasileiros de cardiologia · 2026
    Article
  3. Observational
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Eva MaretDepartment of Clinical Physiology, Ryhov County Hospital, SE-551 85 Jonkoping, Sweden. eva.maret@lj.se
Jan Engvall
Eva Nylander
Jan Ohlsson
Linköping University · SERyhov Hospital Jönköping · SE

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundMyocardial perfusion imaging (MPI), using single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) is a validated method for detecting coronary artery disease. Transthoracic Doppler echocardiography (TTDE) of flow at rest and during adenosine provocation has previously been evaluated in selected patient groups. We therefore wanted to compare the diagnostic ability of TTDE in the left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) to that of MPI in an unselected population of patients with chest pain referred for MPI. Our hypothesis was that TTDE with high accuracy would identify healthy individuals and exclude them from the need for further studies, enabling invasive investigations to be reserved for patients with a high probability of disease.

methodsSixty-nine patients, 44 men and 25 women, age 61 +/- 10 years (range 35-82), with a clinical suspicion of stress induced myocardial ischemia, were investigated. TTDE was performed at rest and during adenosine stress for myocardial scintigraphy.

resultsWe found that coronary flow velocity reserve (CFVR) determined from diastolic measurements separated normal from abnormal MPI findings with statistical significance. TTDE identified coronary artery disease, defined from MPI, as reversible ischemia and/or permanent defect, with a sensitivity of 60% and a specificity of 79%. The positive predictive value was 43% and the negative predictive value was 88%. There was an overlap between groups which could be due to abnormal endothelial function in patients with normal myocardial perfusion having either hypertension or diabetes.

conclusionTTDE is an attractive non-invasive method to evaluate chest pain without the use of isotopes, but the diagnostic power is strongly dependent on the population investigated. Even in our heterogeneous clinical cardiac population, we found that CFVR>2 in the LAD excluded significant coronary artery disease detected by MPI.

Indexed as

AdultAgedAged, 80 and overCoronary Artery DiseaseCoronary VesselsEchocardiography, DopplerFeasibility StudiesFemaleFractional Flow Reserve, MyocardialHumansMaleMiddle AgedReproducibility of ResultsSensitivity and SpecificityTomography, Emission-Computed, Single-PhotonVentricular Dysfunction, Left

Identifiers

PMID18373873
PMCPMC2292686
OpenAlexW2137845991

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.