Value of the stress test in the evaluation of the severity of ischemic heart disease

: Loading test was used in 156 patients with ischemic heart disease and the results of their selection are presented. In all patients occlusive coronary disease was detected by selective coronarography. They were divided in three groups. Two groups of patients had a high risk ischemic heart disease requiring surgical revascularization of the myocardium and selective coronarography. The first of these two groups comprised 48 patients with significant stenosis of the main tree of the coronary artery and the second comprised 35 patients with equivalent stenosis of this artery. The third group comprised 73 patients with ischemic heart disease of small risk in whom occlusive changes of the coronary arteries were of distal localization. The statistically significant difference was found between the two groups of patients with high risk and the third group with small risk according to early development of ST depression in the first minutes of loading, its degree, number of leads with ST depression, form and its maintenance after cessation of loading. The difference was also significant regarding the submaximal pulse rate and systolic blood pressure during loading test. It has been concluded that by using loading test as a functional diagnostic method patients with a high risk ischemic heart disease can be selected stressing the advantage of physiology over morphology.