Dobutamine echocardiography for determining the extent of myocardial salvage after reperfusion. An experimental evaluation.

Although dobutamine echocardiography is being increasingly used to determine the presence of viable myocardium in patients who have undergone successful reperfusion therapy, the physiological basis for such a use has not been clearly defined. Because postischemic myocardium has contractile reserve, we hypothesized that the absolute degree of wall thickening induced by dobutamine during reflow would be directly related to the amount of myocardium that has escaped necrosis.