Dobutamine stress echocardiography: Causes and approach to false negative and false positive studies

Dobumitamine stress echocardiography has clinically useful levels of sensitivity and specificity. False negative studies are more common in patients with single vessel disease and those not achieving adequate levels of stress. Adequate stress can be attained in more patients with the use of atropine and aggressive dobutamine infusion protocols. Digital storage and display of baseline and serial stress images assists in the recognition of subtle or atypical manifestations of ischemia.