Abstract
Background : It has been reported that ischemic heart disease (IHD) is frequently observed in patients with stroke, but an exercise stress ECG cannot be administered to patients with post-stroke sequelae. We therefore tried using dipyridamole-loaded electrocardiograms in post-stroke patients to detect silent ischemic heart disease. Materials and methods : A dipyridamole-loaded electrocardiogram was administered to 60 rehabilitation patients after cerebral infarction, based on the report of Picano et al. Dipyridamole was infused at a dosage of 0.56 mg per kilogram over four minutes, and the electrocardiogram was recorded immediately after infusion, and then again two and four minutes after infusion. Results : Dipyridamole-loaded electrocardiogram was positive in 10 of the 60 persons (16.7%). Of these, 4 were atherothrombotic stroke patients, 3 were lacunar, and one was cardioembolic. Only two of the 10 patients had abnormal resting electrocardiography. Four out of 10 patients complained of chest pain during the test. Conclusions : A dipyridamole-loaded electrocardiogram can be safely and effectively used in patients with post-stroke sequelae. This method is considered to be one of the diagnostic methods to detect silent ischemic heart disease in post-stroke patients.
