Hypertension is strongly associated with false-positive bicycle exercise stress echocardiography testing results

AbstractIntroduction: Exercise echocardiography is a reliable routine test in patients with known or suspected coronary artery disease. However, in ∼15% of all patients, stress echocardiography leads to false-positive stress echocardiography results. We aimed to investigate the impact of hypertension on stress echocardiographic results.Methods: We performed a retrospective study of patients with suspected or known stable coronary artery disease who underwent a bicycle exercise stress echocardiography. Patients with false-positive stress results were compared with those with appropriate results.Results: 126 patients with suspected or known coronary artery disease were included in this retrospective study. 23 patients showed false-positive stress echocardiography results. Beside comparable age, gender distribution and coronary artery status, hypertension was more prevalent in patients with false-positive stress results (95.7% vs. 67.0%, p = 0.0410). Exercise peak load revealed a borderline-significance with...