European heart journal
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European heart journal · Jun 1995
Multicenter Study Clinical TrialThe value of dipyridamole echocardiography in risk stratification before vascular surgery. A multicenter study. The EPIC (Echo Persantine International Study) Group--Subproject: Risk Stratification Before Major Vascular Surgery.
Patients undergoing major vascular surgery are at relatively high risk of cardiac events, and pharmacological stress echocardiography is increasingly used for peri-operative risk stratification. ⋯ In conclusion, dipyridamole echocardiography testing is safe and well tolerated in patients undergoing major vascular surgery, and provides an effective pre-operative screening test for risk stratification of these patients mainly due to the extremely high negative predictive value. Stress echocardiography is a better discriminator than clinical and rest echocardiographic variables.