Relative sensitivity of four noninvasive methods in assessing systolic cardiovascular effects of isoproterenol in healthy volunteers.

Study objective The study was performed to evaluate the relative sensitivity of various noninvasive methods to detect and describe the systolic cardiovascular effects of stepwise increasing doses of isoproterenol: two-dimensional left ventricular echocardiography (main variable, ejection fraction), ACVF (attenuation compensated volume flow)–dual-beam Doppler echoaortography (time-averaged mean velocity), electrical impedance cardiography [(dZ/dtmax)/RZ index], and systolic time intervals from mechanocar-diography (PEP and QS2c). Methods Isoproterenol was administered by constant rate intravenous infusion in consecutive steps of 0.1, 0.2, 0.4, 0.75, and 1.5 µg/min (each for 15 minutes). Sali…