Open Access
ARTICLE
Stress echocardiography: An overview for use in pediatric and congenital cardiology
Peter Ermis
Department of Cardiology, Texas Children’s
Hospital, Baylor College of Medicine,
Houston, Texas
* Corresponding Author: Peter Ermis, Department of Cardiology, Texas Children’s Hospital, Baylor College of Medicine, 6621 Fannin Street, Suite 19345-C, Houston, TX 77030. Email:
Congenital Heart Disease 2017, 12(5), 624-626. https://doi.org/10.1111/chd.12495
Abstract
Currently, the role of stress echocardiography primarily resides in diagnosing acquired coronary
artery disease (CAD) in adults. Besides an increasing concern for traditional CAD in young patients
due to obesity and other chronic pediatric diseases, there is also a growing population of adolescents and young adults with “at risk” coronary arteries due to: reimplanted coronaries in
congenital heart disease, anomalous origin of the native coronary arteries, coronary abnormalities
in Kawasaki’s disease, and posttransplant coronary vasculopathy. Stress echocardiography is well
suited for routine screening and monitoring in these patients. Also, due to the ability of stress
echocardiography to provide real-time cardiac imaging, it is useful in areas beyond coronary ischemia. Utilizing Doppler derived velocities and pressure gradients, one is able to further evaluate and
risk-stratify patients with valvular heart disease. In addition, stress echocardiography is useful in
evaluating other areas including ventricular and coronary reserve. The benefits of stress echocardiography are it is: readily available, portable, and relatively cheap. It can be performed without
sedation or radiation exposure which becomes very important in younger patients that require
periodic monitoring. Stress echocardiography can also evaluate functional abnormalities instead of
relative perfusion defects. Overall, stress echocardiography is currently an underutilized imaging
modality that has a wide, and expanding, range of application in the practice of pediatric and congenital cardiology.
Keywords
Cite This Article
Ermis, P. (2017). Stress echocardiography: An overview for use in pediatric and congenital cardiology.
Congenital Heart Disease, 12(5), 624–626. https://doi.org/10.1111/chd.12495