Applications of stress testing, stress echocardiography and Doppler echocardiography to the evaluation of coronary artery disease and valvular heart disease.

The stress echocardiography laboratory, which performs over 8000 clinical studies annually, has an active research program involving multiple areas of investigation:

1. The role of stress echocardiography in predicting outcomes in various populations is being evaluated.
2. Intravenous contrast agents and their roles in stress echocardiography and myocardial perfusion imaging are being evaluated.
3. Coronary flow reserve is being assessed with transthoracic Doppler echocardiography.
4. Supine bicycle exercise Doppler echocardiography is used to evaluate valvular heart disease and exercise related changes in diastolic function in patients with and without coronary artery disease.
5. New methods for quantitative interpretation of stress echocardiography are being evaluated, including strain rate imaging and tissue Doppler.

The stress echocardiography laboratory has an extensive database comprising more than 50,000 patients who have undergone stress echocardiography. Multiple stress testing modalities, including exercise, pharmacologic stress, and transesophageal atrial pacing stress are employed in conjunction with echocardiography. The laboratory is a leader in stress echocardiography, recognized for its clinical excellence and its research contributions. Applications of stress testing, stress echocardiography, and Doppler echocardiography to the evaluation of coronary artery disease, diastolic dysfunction and valvular heart disease are topics of ongoing investigation.