Abstract
Background: The American College of Cardiology Foundation/American Society of Nuclear Cardiology appropriateness criteria document assigns single photon emission computed tomography myocardial perfusion imaging (SPECT MPI) a rating of uncertain for detection and risk assessment of coronary artery disease (CAD) in asymptomatic patients at moderate risk. Methods and Results: The nuclear cardiology database was used to identify 260 asymptomatic patients (67 ± 8 years, 72% men) without known CAD who were at moderate CAD risk according to the Framingham risk score. SPECT MPI images were categorized using the summed stress score (SSS). Mean follow-up 9.9 ± 3.0 years. Abnormal SPECT MPI scans were present in 142 patients (55%). By SSS categories, SPECT scans were low-risk in 67%, intermediate-risk in 20%, and high-risk in 13% of patients. Overall survival at 10 years was 79%, significantly better than the age- and gender-matched Minnesota general population (P < 0.001). Survival was 60% for patients with high-risk scans (95% CI 45-80%), 79% with intermediate-risk scans (95% CI 69-91%), and 83% with low-risk scans (95% CI 77-88%) (P = 0.03), including 84% (95% CI 77-91%) with normal scans. Conclusions: In this retrospectively identified group of asymptomatic patients at moderate CAD risk, stress SPECT MPI was effective for the detection and risk stratification of CAD. Average annual mortality was 4.0% in patients with high-risk scans vs 1.6% in patients with normal scans.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 516-523 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Journal of Nuclear Cardiology |
Volume | 16 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2009 |
Keywords
- Appropriateness
- Coronary artery disease
- Risk assessment
- SPECT MPI
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Radiology Nuclear Medicine and imaging
- Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine