Long-term prognostic value of contemporary stress echocardiography in patients with suspected or known coronary artery disease: systematic review and meta-analysis
Background Long-term outcome of contemporary stress echocardiography has not been systematically assessed. Objective To evaluate the association between results of stress echocardiography and patients’ outcomes with suspected coronary artery disease using randomised controlled trials. Methods Multiple electronic databases were searched for studies evaluating long-term outcome (>12 months) of stress echocardiography in patients suspected of coronary artery disease since year 2000. A common-effect model was used to derive pooled estimates. The primary outcome was a composite of all-cause mortality or cardiovascular death and non-fatal myocardial infarction, depending on the definition applied in individual trials, termed as major adverse cardiovascular event (MACE). Secondary outcome was all-cause mortality. Positive stress echocardiography result was defined as inducible ischaemia in at least one of the 17 left ventricular segments and negative stress echocardiography with no inducible