Intrinsic and extrinsic determinants of false positive exercise stress echocardiography results in master athletes with suspected coronary artery disease

<p><span lang="EN-US">False positive (FP) exercise stress echocardiography (ESE) results are more commonly detected among individuals with low pre-test probability of coronary artery disease (CAD), especially females, individuals with mitral valve prolapse (MVP) syndrome, individuals with hypertensive response to exercise and individuals with resting nonischemic wall motion abnormalities.</span></p> <p><span lang="EN-US">Recent evidence indicates that extrinsic factors, particularly a concave-shaped chest wall conformation, noninvasively assessed the by modified Haller index (MHI) or the echocardiographic antero-posterior thoracic (A-P) diameter, may cause FP ESE results.</span></p> <p><span lang="EN-US">A preliminary chest shape assessment by the innovative MHI or the echocardiographic A-P thoracic diameter may allow the clinicians to identify, among the master athletes, those with lower probability of obstructive CAD and increased probability of MVP and mitral annular disjunction.</span></p>