It is known from the extensive experimental and clinical experiences that dipyridamole infusion can provoke myocardial ischemia in the presence of coronary artery stenosis. Conversely, the decrement of regional contractile function is directly related to the regional subendocardial blood flow with acute progressive stenosis and during stress induced ischemia.

To assess the clinical usefulness of dipyridamole echocardiography test and 99mTc-methoxy-isobutyl-isonitrile(MIBI) single photon emission computed tomography(SPECT) in detecting coronary artery disease(CAD), 33 patients(21 males, 12 females, mean age : 56 years)

Dipyridamole echocardiography and MIBI SPECT identified 15(75%) and 12 (60%) out of the 20 patients with significant CAD(defined as≥75% diameter stenosis). The sensitivity and specificity for ditecting individual diseased vessels were 67% and 83% for dipyridamole echocardiography and 46% and 91% for MIBI SPECT respectively. Dipyridamole echocardiography test had slightly higher sensitivity than SPECT in detecting isolated left anterior descending coronary stenosis(75% vs 50%, p<0.05). No patients had significant side effects with dipyridamole injection.

Both dipyridamole echocardiography test and 99mTC-MIBI SPECT may be useful noninvasive methods for the evaluation of suspected coronary artery disease.