Table 1.

Interpretation of exercise and pharmacologic stress echocardiography

Nature of tissue	Resting function	Low dose	Peak/post-stress function
Normal	Normal	Normal	Hyperkinetic
Ischaemic	Normal	Normal (may worsen with severe CAD)	Worse than rest
			Worse than adjacent segments
			Tardokinesis (delayed contraction)
Viable, ischaemic	Rest WMA	Improvement at low dose	Reduction (compared with low dose)
Viable, non-ischaemic	Rest WMA	Improvement at low dose	Sustained improvement
Infarction	Rest WMA	No change	No change

CAD, coronary artery disease; WMA, wall motion abnormalities (severe hypokinesis, akinesis, dyskinesis).