Stress echocardiography holds a firm place in the diagnosis of ischaemic heart disease in adult patients. Experience with dynamic dobutamine stress echocardiography in paediatrics is relatively scare. The majority of findings was assembled in children with Kawasaki’s disease, after cardiac transplantation and left ventricular damage after myocarditis and cardiotoxic chemotherapy, in dilatation cardiomyopathy. So far there are no uniform views on stress protocols in children. We do not know the predictive value of some stress indicators of left ventricular function for the subsequent development of the disease. Nevertheless indications for implementation of the test are accumulating. With regard to lack of information of this method in our literature the authors submit a review of literary data on stress echocardiography incl. some of their own experience pertaining in particular to methods of these tests.

        Key words: stress echocardiography, dobutamine, ergometry, myocardial function