Occurrence of myocardial ischemia in patients undergoing pharmacologic stress echocardiography: the impact of type-D personality

Background: type-d personality has been identified as a risk factor for general and cardiac mortality in patients with coronary artery disease (cad). dobutamine-atropine stress echocardiography (dase) is an established method for non-invasive evaluation of myocardial ischemia in patients with cad. the objective of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of type-d personality and its association with the occurrence of myocardial ischemia as assessed by dase. methods: this case-control study enrolled 306 patients (61 ± 9.6 years,57.8% female) who were referred by physicians to assessment of myocardial ischemia. before undergoing dase,the patients answered the type-d scale,which identifies type-d personality. results: type-d personality was identified in 106 patients (34.6%). dase was positive for myocardial ischemia in 32.4% (99) of 306 participants there was no significant association between type-d personality and ischemic changes on dase (p = 0.941; odds ratio: 0.98; confidence interval 95%: 0.57-1.69). chest pain was the only clinical variable with statistically significant prevalence in type-d personality patients (77.4% vs. 57.0%; p < 0.001). conclusions: type-d personality was not a significant risk factor for the presence of ischemic changes on dase. patients with type-d personality tended to complain more frequently of chest pain than non-type-d patients.