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(Circulation. 1997;96:137-147.)
© 1997 American Heart Association, Inc.
Articles |
Cardiac Imaging for Risk Stratification With Dobutamine-Atropine Stress Testing in Patients With Chest Pain
Echocardiography, Perfusion Scintigraphy, or Both?
From the Thoraxcenter and the Department of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital, Rotterdam-Dijkzigt and Erasmus University, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Correspondence to Marcel L. Geleijnse, MD, Thoraxcentre, Ba 300, Dr Molewaterplein 40, 3015 GD Rotterdam, Netherlands.
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Abstract |
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 Top Abstract IntroductionMethodsResultsDiscussionReferences |
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Background Pharmacological stress echocardiography and myocardial perfusion scintigraphy are used frequently for risk stratification in patients with suspected myocardial ischemia. However, their relative prognostic strength has never been explored.
Methods and Results Two hundred twenty consecutive patients
with chest pain (mean age, 60±12 years; 124 men, 115 with previous
myocardial infarction) were studied with
dobutamine-atropine stress
echocardiography (ECHO) and
simultaneous 99mTc sestamibi single photon
emission computed tomography imaging (MIBI). Ischemia was
defined as deterioration in left ventricular wall motion
and reversible perfusion defects, respectively. ECHO was positive for
ischemia in 76 and MIBI in 91 patients (agreement, 77%;
=.51). During follow-up of 31±15 months, 24 patients had hard
cardiac events (nonfatal myocardial infarction or cardiac death). By
univariate analysis, age, history of congestive
heart failure, and any abnormality or ischemia on ECHO or MIBI
were associated with cardiac events. Multivariate
analysis revealed that age, abnormal ECHO (odds ratio [OR],
18.9; 95% CI, 2.5 to 146.0) or MIBI (OR, 12.8; 95% CI, 1.7 to 98.3),
and ischemia on ECHO (OR, 4.0; 95% CI, 1.6 to 9.9) or MIBI
(OR, 3.0; 95% CI, 1.2 to 7.4) had independent predictive values. When
ECHO was used as a first option, the addition of MIBI to all
nonischemic ECHO studies decreased the OR from 4.0 (95% CI,
1.6 to 9.9) to 3.8 (95% CI, 1.4 to 10.2). Addition of MIBI confined to
nonischemic ECHO studies in which target heart rate was not
attained (nondiagnostic studies) increased the OR to a
maximal 5.7 (95% CI, 2.2 to 15.0). In contrast, the addition of ECHO
to nondiagnostic MIBI studies was not useful.
Conclusions Dobutamine-atropine ECHO and MIBI provide comparable prognostic information. The addition of MIBI to ECHO may be useful in patients with nondiagnostic ECHO studies.
Key Words: stress • tests • echocardiography • radioisotopes • prognosis
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Introduction |
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TopAbstractIntroductionMethodsResultsDiscussionReferences |
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Risk stratification of patients with known or suspected coronary artery disease is an important goal of clinical cardiology.1 In daily clinical practice, several modalities of stress testing are used for this purpose, often in conjunction with cardiac imaging.2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Among imaging modalities, myocardial perfusion scintigraphy is currently the most widely used noninvasive technique for the functional and prognostic assessment of patients with known or suspected coronary artery disease,7 8 9 10 11 in particular in combination with exercise stress. However, since up to 40% of the patients referred for noninvasive evaluation of coronary artery disease are unable to perform adequate exercise,9 there is a consensus that pharmacological stress tests are first choice in a substantial number of patients. Echocardiography is well suited to be combined with pharmacological stress,12 and there is a growing body of evidence to indicate that pharmacological stress echocardiography is as feasible and efficient as perfusion scintigraphy for diagnostic purposes.13 14 However, it is unknown which imaging modality should be preferred for risk stratification. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to assess the relative prognostic value of dobutamine-atropine ECHO, MIBI, and their combination in 220 consecutive patients with chest pain and inability to perform adequate exercise.
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Methods |
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TopAbstractIntroductionMethodsResultsDiscussionReferences |
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Study Group
Over a 3-year period, between November 1990 and October 1993, 260 consecutive patients with chest pain underwent a simultaneous dobutamine-atropine stress ECHO and MIBI study. All patients were referred for pharmacological stress testing because of inadequate exercise capacity, either proven by previous nondiagnostic exercise testing or judged by the referring physician. None of these patients had prior heart transplantation, congenital or significant valvular heart disease, known primary dilated cardiomyopathy, or unstable angina. Forty patients were excluded from final analysis: 14 with technically inadequate echocardiograms at rest (11) or peak stress (3), 2 with poor-quality scintigraphic images, 8 with multiple tests (in these patients only the first test was considered), and 16 with early elective coronary revascularization within 60 days after stress testing. None of the latter patients sustained MI before coronary revascularization. The mean age of the remaining 220 patients was 60±12 years (range, 23 to 85); 124 were men (56%). One hundred fifteen patients (52%) had a previous MI and 26 patients (12%) had known coronary artery disease without MI. Fifty-two patients (24%) had typical angina, 117 (53%) had atypical angina, and 51 (23%) had nonanginal chest pain. At the time of the study, 156 patients (71%) were receiving antianginal therapy, including ß-blockers in 92 (42%), either administered alone in 28 (13%) or in combination with nitrates and/or calcium channel blockers in 64 (29%).
Dobutamine-Atropine Stress Test
After routine preparation, a resting ECG and echocardiogram were
made, intravenous access was secured, and
dobutamine was administered intravenously by an
infusion pump. The initial infusion rate was 10 µg/kg per minute for
3 minutes, increasing by 10 µg/kg per minute every 3 minutes up to a
maximum of 40 µg/kg per minute. In patients not achieving 85% of
their age- and sex-predicted maximal heart rate and without symptoms or
signs of myocardial ischemia, atropine was administered in
addition to the maximal dose of dobutamine, starting with
0.25 mg intravenously and repeated up to a maximum of 1.0
mg within 4 minutes with continuation of the dobutamine
infusion.15 Throughout dobutamine infusion the
ECG (3 leads) was continuously monitored, and a 12-lead ECG was
recorded at 1-minute intervals. The level of ST-segment shift was
calculated, after signal averaging, by a computer-assisted system
(Cardiovit CSG/12; Schiller). Blood pressure was measured and
recorded by sphygmomanometry or automatic device every 3 minutes.
Reasons for interruption of the test were horizontal or downsloping
ST-segment depression of >0.2 mV at an interval of 80 ms after the
J-point compared with baseline, ST-segment elevation of >0.1 mV in
patients without previous MI, severe angina, a symptomatic
reduction in systolic blood pressure >40 mm Hg from
baseline, hypertension (blood pressure >240/120 mm Hg),
significant cardiac tachyarrhythmias, and any serious
side effect that was regarded to be a result of dobutamine.
Metoprolol was available and used to reverse the effects of
dobutamine if they did not revert spontaneously and
quickly.
Echocardiographic and Perfusion Scintigraphic
Imaging
Echocardiographic analysis of the left
ventricular wall was performed according to a 16-segment
model.16 Both systolic wall thickening and inward
endocardial motion were visually evaluated, and each segment was graded
on a 5-point scoring system (1, normal; 2, mild hypokinesis; 3, severe
hypokinesis; 4, akinesis; and 5, dyskinesis). For perfusion imaging,
370 mBq of MIBI was injected intravenously at peak stress
while dobutamine infusion was continued for 1 minute.
Stress scintigraphic images were acquired, on average, 1 hour after
termination of the dobutamine infusion. For resting
studies, 370 mBq of MIBI was injected at least 24 hours after the
stress study. Image acquisition was performed with a Siemens
Gammasonics single-head Rota Camera. For each study, 6 short-axis and 3
sagittal long-axis slices were analyzed. To compare the stress
and rest studies, each of the 6 short-axis slices was divided into 8
equal segments. The septal part of the 2 basal slices (4 segments) was
not evaluated because this region corresponds to the fibrous portion of
the interventricular septum and normally exhibits reduced
uptake. The apical region was assessed from the 3 sagittal cross
sections. A total of 47 segments per patient were analyzed. All
tomographic views were reviewed in side-by-side pairs (stress and rest)
and the myocardial uptake of radiotracer was evaluated visually, with
the assistance of circumferential profile analysis including
the normal values, also with the use of a 5-point scoring method (1,
normal; 2, minimally reduced uptake; 3, moderately reduced uptake; 4,
severely reduced uptake; and 5, absence of uptake).
As depicted in Fig 1
, the echocardiographic and
scintigraphic images were subsequently matched by regrouping the 16
echocardiographic and the 47 scintigraphic segments in
6 major myocardial regions (anterior, anterior septum, posterior
septum, inferoposterior, lateral, and
apical).17 A region was
classified as infarcted in the case of a resting score >2 in one or
more segments on ECHO18 and >2 in two or more adjacent
segments on MIBI. A region was classified as ischemic on ECHO
in the case of an increase in score between rest and stress in one or
more segments unless an akinetic segment showed no improvement during
low-dose dobutamine and became dyskinetic during high-dose
dobutamine.19 On MIBI, ischemia was
defined as a perfusion defect during stress that partially or totally
resolved at rest in at least two contiguous segments or slices. An ECHO
or MIBI study was classified as abnormal in the presence of either
infarction or ischemia. All studies were reviewed by two
experienced observers (A.S. and R.R. for ECHO; J.H.C. and A.R. for
MIBI) unaware of all other stress test results. In cases of
disagreement, a third reviewer (P.M.F.) decided on the grading of each
study. Pattern (normal, ischemia alone, infarction alone, or
both infarction and ischemia [mixed]) interobserver
agreement, as assessed in 200 patients, was 89% for ECHO and 92% for
MIBI. Interobserver agreement on ischemia was 92% for ECHO and
95% for MIBI.
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Follow-up
Follow-up data were obtained over a 31±15-month period (range,
12 to 48 months) by outpatient clinic assessment, review of case notes,
and contact with the patient, general practitioner, or
other hospitals when necessary. Outcome events were cardiac death,
nonfatal MI, and revascularization
(coronary bypass surgery or percutaneous
transluminal coronary angioplasty). Cardiac death was defined
as a death temporally associated with a known or suspected acute MI,
life-threatening arrhythmia, or pulmonary edema.
Unexpected death without an identified noncardiac cause also was
considered to be cardiac death. Occurrence of an acute MI was confirmed
with the use of standard clinical and ECG criteria and when total
creatine kinase enzyme levels exceeded twice the normal values. Hard
cardiac events (cardiac death and nonfatal MI) and all cardiac events
(hard events or revascularization) were separately
analyzed as end points. Patients with
revascularization procedures were censored at the
time of intervention, so only the first event in each patient was
considered.
Statistical Analysis
Values were expressed as mean±SD unless specified. Comparison
of patients with and without cardiac events was performed with the
Student's t test for continuous variables and
2 test for discrete variables. Differences of
P<.05 were considered significant. Variables correlated
with cardiac events at a significance level of P<.10 by
univariate analysis and selected variables with
P=.10 to .20 were further analyzed with the use of
stepwise logistic regression. ORs and 95% CIs were calculated for
variables used in the multivariate model.
Kaplan-Meier life table estimates of infarction-free survival (survival
without cardiac death or nonfatal MI) and event-free survival (survival
without cardiac death, nonfatal MI, or
revascularizations) were used to summarize the
follow-up results. Comparison of life tables was performed with the use
of the log-rank test.
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Results |
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TopAbstractIntroductionMethodsResultsDiscussionReferences |
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Dobutamine-Atropine Stress Test
Hemodynamic Results, End Points, and Side Effects
The maximal dobutamine dose used was 10 µg/kg per minute in 1 patient, 20 µg/kg per minute in 4 patients, 30 µg/kg per minute in 30 patients, and 40 µg/kg per minute in 185 patients. Atropine was added in 83 patients (38%) and was more often used in patients on ß-blockers (58 of 92 on versus 25 of 128 off ß-blockers, P<.0001). Heart rate increased by 63±15 bpm up to 134±17 bpm at peak stress, systolic blood pressure by 13±27 mm Hg up to 151±31 mm Hg, and the double product (heart rate times systolic blood pressure) by 10 382±3809 up to 20 108±4825 beatsxmm Hg per minute.
Target heart rate (85% of maximum for age and sex) was not reached in 46 tests (21%) either after maximal-dose dobutamine-atropine had been given in 18 patients (8%) or premature stopping of the test in 28 patients (13%). The test was prematurely stopped because of angina in 19 patients, ST-segment changes in 2, hypertension in 1, symptomatic hypotension in 4, nonsustained ventricular tachycardia in 1, and anxiety in 1. Most patients not reaching their target heart rate despite maximal-dose dobutamine-atropine were on ß-blockers (15 of 18 on versus 3 of 18 off ß-blockers, P<.001). Side effects usually were minor, and significant tachyarrhythmias (paroxysmal supraventricular or nonsustained ventricular) were encountered during dobutamine infusion or recovery in 14 patients (6%).
Distribution of Imaging Patterns
As shown in Fig 2, the distributions of ECHO and MIBI patterns
were, respectively, normal in 86 (39%) and 70 (32%), infarction alone
in 58 (26%) and 59 (27%), ischemia alone in 31 (14%) and 32
(15%), and both ischemia and infarction in 45 (20%) and 59
(27%). Therefore, abnormal patterns were
present in 134 (61%) and 150 (68%) patients, infarction patterns
in 103 (47%) and 118 (54%), and ischemic patterns in 76
(35%) and 91 (41%), respectively. Pattern agreement (normal,
ischemia alone, infarction alone, and mixed patterns) between
ECHO and MIBI was 66% (=.53). The agreement for ischemia
was 77% (=.51).
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Clinical Outcome
Twelve patients (5%) had "incomplete" follow-up, 7 because
of noncardiac death (cancer in 3, pneumonia in 2, AIDS in 1, and
myelodysplasia in 1) and 5 because of geographic relocation. During
follow-up, 11 patients had a nonfatal MI and 13 died as the result of a
cardiac event. Thirty patients underwent a late or nonelective
revascularization procedure. In total, 24 patients
had a "hard" cardiac event (cardiac death or nonfatal MI) and 54
patients had "any" cardiac event (cardiac death, nonfatal MI, or
revascularization).
Prediction of Events From Clinical and Stress Test Results
Univariate Analysis
The clinical and the stress test variables in patients with
and without hard cardiac events are summarized in Tables 1 and 3. Clinical variables associated with
hard cardiac events were age and history of CHF. Of the stress test
variables, peak systolic blood pressure and double
product were lower in patients with subsequent events. However,
peak heart rate, angina, or ST-segment changes during the test were not
associated with increased rate of hard cardiac events. Imaging patterns
associated with hard cardiac events were the presence of any
abnormality on ECHO or MIBI, infarction on MIBI, and ischemia
on ECHO or MIBI. Associated with all cardiac events were the clinical
variables of male sex, a history of typical angina, MI, or
revascularization, and all abnormal imaging
patterns on ECHO or MIBI (Tables 2 and 4).
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Infarction-Free Survival Curves
The infarction-free survival curves in patients with the different
ECHO and MIBI patterns are depicted in Fig 3A and 3B. A normal study was associated with a
favorable prognosis over the follow-up period, with a negligible annual
cardiac event rate of 0.4% by ECHO and 0.5% by MIBI. In contrast,
patients with infarction alone, ischemia alone, and mixed
patterns had significantly increased cardiac event rates of, for ECHO
versus MIBI, respectively, 7.2% (P<.0005) versus 6.4%
(P<.005), 10.8% (P<.0001) versus 6.1%
(P<.005), and 7.2% (P<.0005) versus 7.5%
(P<.005). For event-free survival (Fig 4A and 4B), annual
event rates were, for the different patterns on ECHO versus MIBI,
respectively, 1.8% versus 1.8%, 14.3% (P<.0001) versus
11.3% (P<.005), 10.8% (P<.0001) versus 13.3%
(P<.0005), and 26.7% (P<.0001) versus 18.6%
(P<.0001).
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Annual Hard Event Rates According to Extent of
Abnormalities
As seen in Fig 5A, patients with normal segments only had annual
event rates of 0.4% (n=86) for ECHO and 0.5% (n=70) for
MIBI. For patients with one or two and more
than two abnormal segments, annual event rates were, for ECHO and MIBI,
respectively, 4.9% (n=74) versus 5.7% (n=98) and 13.6% (n=60) versus
9.6% (n=52). As seen in Fig 5B, patients without infarcted segments
had annual event rates of 2.6% (n=117) for ECHO and 2.0% (n=102) for
MIBI. For patients with one and more than one infarcted segment, annual
event rates were, for ECHO and MIBI, respectively, 2.5% (n=35) versus
5.6% (n=56) and 10.4% (n=68) versus 8.9% (n=62). As seen in Fig 5C, patients without ischemic segments had annual event rates of
2.3% (n=144) for ECHO and 2.6% (n=129) for MIBI. For patients with
one and more than one ischemic segment, annual event rates
were, for ECHO and MIBI, respectively, 6.0% (n=35) versus 5.6% (n=51)
and 12.3% (n=41) versus 9.3% (n=40).
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Annual Event Rates According to Combination of ECHO and MIBI
Results
As seen in Fig 6A, patients with both a negative ECHO study and a
negative MIBI study had annual hard event rates of 0% (n=60) if any
abnormality was considered and 2.0% (n=111) if ischemia was
considered. For patients with a
negative ECHO study and a positive MIBI study, these numbers were 1.3%
(n=10) and 3.7% (n=18); for patients with a positive ECHO study and a
negative MIBI study, these numbers were 3.0% (n=26) and 8.2% (n=33);
and for patients with both a positive ECHO study and a positive and
MIBI study, these numbers were 9.2% (n=124) and 9.9% (n=58),
respectively. Similarly, for all cardiac events, the respective numbers
were 0.5% and 4.5%, 5.5% and 10.9%, 16.5% and 14.3%, and 23.4%
and 31.8% (Fig 6B).
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Multivariate Analysis: Addition of ECHO or
MIBI to Clinical Data
Table 5 summarizes the results of univariate and
multivariate (stepwise logistic regression)
analyses of clinical data and stress test imaging results as
predictors of subsequent cardiac events. The
results of the addition of ECHO or MIBI to clinical data were
analyzed separately (clinical data + ECHO and clinical data +
MIBI). Furthermore, each analysis was performed twice; in the
first model (Table 5, model I) the only imaging pattern variable
entered was the presence of an abnormal pattern (any abnormality), and
in the second model (Table 5, model II) the presence of an
ischemic or infarcted pattern was separately included. As shown
in Table 5, age and an abnormal pattern on ECHO (OR, 18.9; 95% CI, 2.5
to 146.0) or MIBI (OR, 12.8; 95% CI, 1.7 to 98.3) in model I and an
ischemic pattern on ECHO (OR, 4.0; 95% CI, 1.6 to 9.9) or MIBI
(OR, 3.0; 95% CI, 1.2 to 7.4) in model II were independent predictors
of subsequent hard cardiac events. Infarcted patterns on ECHO or MIBI
were not independent predictors for hard cardiac events. However, when
the presence of an infarcted pattern in 3 or more segments was forced
into multivariate model II, independent predictors were
age, an infarcted pattern on ECHO (OR, 6.2; 95% CI, 2.3 to 16.7) or
MIBI (OR, 3.9; 95% CI, 1.4 to 10.7), and an ischemic pattern
on ECHO (OR, 4.8; 95% CI, 1.8 to 12.5) or MIBI (OR, 3.1; 95% CI, 1.2
to 7.8). For all cardiac events (Table 6), age, typical angina, a
history of MI or revascularization, and an abnormal
pattern on ECHO (OR, 8.9; 95% CI, 3.3 to 23.8) or MIBI (OR, 8.8; 95%
CI, 2.9 to 26.6) in model I and an ischemic pattern on ECHO
(OR, 4.0; 95% CI, 2.0 to 7.9) or MIBI (OR, 3.9; 95% CI, 1.9 to 7.8)
in model II were independent predictors of
events.
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Multivariate Analysis: Different Additions
of MIBI to Clinical and ECHO Data
Since MIBI is thought to be slightly more sensitive (but less
specific) for the detection of ischemia20 21 and
more informative in submaximal stress22 than ECHO, we
tried to assess if, to what extent, and in which patients MIBI could
provide additional prognostic information in addition to ECHO. In this
multivariate regression analysis, MIBI was
added to nonischemic ECHO studies according to four different
strategies (Table 7). In each strategy, a
patient was considered to be at risk for future events when either one
of the two techniques revealed ischemia.
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In the first strategy (A), all 220 patients underwent only an ECHO
study. On the basis of an ischemic response, 76 patients were
considered to be at risk, and 15 of them had a hard cardiac event. The
predictive OR for cardiac events was 4.0 (95% CI, 1.6 to 9.9) (as
reported in Table 5
, model II).
In the second strategy (B), MIBI was added to all patients without ischemia on ECHO. This strategy required 144 MIBI scans, and, by definition, yielded a higher number of patients at risk compared with strategy A (109 versus 76 patients). Eighteen of the patients at risk had a hard cardiac event. Because of a decrease in specificity, the OR of an ischemic response for the prediction of events was lower compared with ECHO used alone (3.8; 95% CI, 1.4 to 10.2).
In the third strategy (C), MIBI was added to ECHO only in patients with a nondiagnostic ECHO study (a submaximal test, without ischemia on ECHO). This strategy required 28 MIBI studies; myocardial ischemia was detected in 85 patients, and a hard cardiac event occurred in 17 of them. This strategy resulted in an OR of 5.3 (95% CI, 2.0 to 14.0).
In the last strategy (D), the addition of MIBI was limited to the 12
patients with a nondiagnostic study in which the ECHO test
was interrupted prematurely because of other potential signs or
symptoms of ischemia such as angina, ST-segment changes, or
ventricular tachyarrhythmias but without
ischemia on ECHO (studies in which the probability of a
false-negative ECHO study is highest). By this strategy, 81 patients at
risk could be identified; 17 had a hard cardiac event, and, with the
use of the least additional MIBI studies, the OR was improved to 5.7
(95% CI, 2.2 to 15.0). By considering all patients in this last
strategy to be at risk without addition of any MIBI study, 88 patients
were classified to be at risk, 17 had a hard cardiac event, and the OR
was 5.1 (95% CI, 2.0 to 13.5). In a similar fashion, for the
prediction of any event, the addition of MIBI was also most useful in
strategy D (Table 7, bottom). A similar analysis with reversed
strategies (addition of ECHO to MIBI) is presented in Table 8. The results of this analysis show
that the addition of ECHO to nondiagnostic MIBI did not add
to the information provided by MIBI alone.
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Discussion |
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TopAbstractIntroductionMethodsResultsDiscussionReferences |
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In daily clinical practice, stress-induced transient perfusion defects and wall motion abnormalities are used as myocardial ischemia markers.7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 However, their relative prognostic information in a heterogeneous population, such as that referred to a busy cardiac stress imaging laboratory, is unknown. Therefore, we initiated this study to make a head-to-head comparison between the prognostic value of these different ischemic markers from high-dose dobutamine-atropine stress testing in 220 patients unable to perform an adequate exercise test. The main findings of our study are (1) an ischemic pattern on dobutamine-atropine stress ECHO or MIBI provides comparable, independent prognostic information in addition to clinical data, (2) an increased number of ischemic segments is directly related to a worse prognosis for both ECHO and MIBI, and (3) if ECHO is selected as the imaging modality of first choice, the addition of MIBI to clinical and ECHO data can be useful but should be limited to the minority of patients with a nondiagnostic ECHO study, whereas the reverse addition of ECHO to MIBI seems less useful, certainly from a cost-effective point of view.
Stress Test Technique
In the present study, high-dose
dobutamine-atropine was used as the stressing agent.
High-dose dobutamine, up to 40 µg/kg per minute,
eventually in combination with atropine, has been used widely for the
diagnosis of coronary artery disease in conjunction with
echocardiography and, although less frequently,
also with perfusion scintigraphy.11 13 14 20
Dobutamine is a predominant ß1-agonist that
causes an increase of myocardial oxygen demand mainly resulting from
increased contractility and heart rate, providing
hemodynamic changes partially similar to
exercise.23 In the case of significant coronary
stenoses, dobutamine induces a maldistribution of
flow and eventually a worsening of regional wall thickening that can be
detected by perfusion SPECT imaging and
echocardiography, respectively. In
echocardiographic studies, the addition of atropine to
dobutamine has been shown to improve its
diagnostic accuracy, especially in patients receiving
ß-blockers.15 24
As shown in other studies,25 26 27 dobutamine-atropine stress is a safe and feasible stress method. Consistently, in the present series there were no major side effects such as sustained ventricular tachycardia, ventricular fibrillation, MI, or death. The feasibility of the test was also high, since in only 18 tests (7%) the maximal dose of dobutamine-atropine was insufficient to attain 85% of predicted maximal heart rate and there were only a few nonischemia-related, limiting side effects. Apart from 14 patients (5%) with inadequate acoustic echocardiographic windows for the assessment of all ventricular regions and 2 patients (1%) with scintigraphic images that could not be interpreted completely, only 28 of all ECHO studies (13%) and 23 of all MIBI studies (10%) were nondiagnostic.
Image Pattern Distribution
Ischemic segments were relatively more common on MIBI than
on ECHO. Of note, ischemia was especially more frequently
detected in patients with infarct patterns. These findings are not
surprising, since it is known that according to the
"ischemic cascade" theory,28 perfusion
abnormalities are expected to precede the development of true
ischemia, eventually resulting in wall motion abnormalities.
Furthermore, in segments with resting myocardial dysfunction, the
detection of ischemia on ECHO can be
problematic.29 Abnormal
echocardiographic images in the presence of normal
perfusion images are hard to explain according to a
pathophysiological mechanism. In these 10 patients,
2 had a moderately dilated left ventricle with diffuse hypokinesis but
"normal" perfusion, possibly the result of
cardiomyopathy. Unfortunately, coronary
angiography was not available in these patients. The other 8 patients
all had their echocardiographic wall motion
abnormalities in basal inferoposterior segments, although in most
patients the mid part of the wall was also involved. These regions of
the myocardium are known for their tendency to cause
false-positive results.30
Prognostic Value
This is the first study conducted as a head-to-head comparison of
the prognostic information of stress
echocardiography and perfusion
scintigraphy in patients with known or suspected
coronary artery disease and suspected myocardial
ischemia. Univariate and
multivariate analyses, in which clinical and
stress test variables were incorporated, confirmed the prognostic
value of well-known parameters such as age, a history of
CHF, and any abnormality detected by stress ECHO and
MIBI.9 10 Dobutamine-atropine stress–induced
myocardial ischemia (whether detected by ECHO or MIBI) also
carried independent prognostic information in addition to clinical
data. This was not as strong as that of any perfusion or wall motion
abnormalities, including fixed defects corresponding to myocardial
scarring. However, the additional prognostic value of stress-induced
ischemia is clinically relevant for its potential to be
relieved by medical treatment or revascularization
procedures.
Several reports on comparable populations have been published on the individual prognostic value of stress echocardiography and myocardial perfusion scintigraphy.4 7 10 Although different stress modalities were used, these studies reported similar figures in terms of follow-up results and predictive value of the tests. Therefore, our findings on the prognostic value of dobutamine-atropine ECHO and MIBI are not very surprising. However, this study is unique in the assessment of the relative prognostic value of stress echocardiography and myocardial perfusion scintigraphy applied simultaneously in the same population.
Because both imaging modalities seem to have similar prognostic values,
the choice should be made on the basis of cost aspects, availability,
and (most importantly) local experience and skill.
Dobutamine-atropine perfusion scintigraphy also
could be considered a useful alternative in patients with a poor
acoustic window and additive to echocardiography in
patients with nondiagnostic
echocardiographic studies (strategies C and D, Table 7), especially in patients with contraindications for vasodilator
stress. Theoretically, MIBI could be injected in these patients during
the same stress test, conditional to on-line interpretation of the
echocardiographic images and availability of the
radiotracer and the gamma camera. This strategy seems reasonable and
financially convenient in a laboratory with well-balanced experience in
stress echocardiography and myocardial perfusion
imaging. Addition of stress echocardiography to
perfusion scintigraphy, however, provided little to no
additional information and requires two separate tests because
ischemia at MIBI can only be assessed off-line. Therefore, such
a strategy does not seem cost-effective.
Limitations of the Study
Both animal31 and clinical studies21
have suggested that dobutamine is an appropriate stress
agent to demonstrate abnormal wall motion caused by ischemia.
However, vasodilators (adenosine or
dipyridamole) might be more suitable to create blood
flow heterogeneity detected by perfusion
scintigraphy. Indeed, in the same animal
model31 dipyridamole caused the most blood
flow heterogeneity, making it particularly suited for
myocardial perfusion studies. Published clinical data, however,
conflict concerning the superiority of vasodilators to
dobutamine for perfusion scintigraphy. Kumar et
al32 found that dipyridamole thallium
scintigraphy correlated better with coronary score.
However, these results were based on a small group of patients and the
dobutamine dose used was very low (20 µg/kg per minute).
Marwick et al13 found in a larger series of 97
patients-using high-dose dobutamine-that the accuracy of
dobutamine MIBI was comparable with adenosine MIBI
(accuracies of 77% and 80%, respectively). Recently, these findings
were confirmed by others.33 Although none of the
aforementioned studies provides evidence for a superiority of
vasodilator over dobutamine perfusion imaging for
prognosis, the former stress modality is more routinely used in
clinical cardiology. Future studies should provide
information on the relative prognostic value of vasodilator versus
dobutamine perfusion imaging and eventually versus
dobutamine stress echocardiography.
The decision to perform coronary arteriography and subsequent coronary artery angioplasty or bypass graft surgery is influenced frequently by individual physicians' biases and may be affected by the presence of abnormal findings on the stress study. Therefore, we excluded patients with early elective revascularizations, and "hard" cardiac events (nonfatal MI and cardiac-related death) were analyzed separately.
The scintigrams were scored with the use of a semiquantitative method. Quantitative methods may improve diagnostic accuracy34 ; however, such an improvement is usually marginal. In an in-depth prospective analysis of patients referred for 201Tl SPECT, Mahmarian et al34 reported that visual and quantitative methods were comparably sensitive for identifying patients with single, double, and triple coronary disease; however, quantitative tomography tended to be more specific. In contrast, in a prior study from our center, we reported similar sensitivity and a trend toward better specificity for semiquantitative analysis versus quantitative analysis of dipyridamole–exercise 201Tl scintigrams.35 Finally, the interobserver agreement on ischemia for the semiquantitative analysis in the present study was excellent (95%).
Conclusions
In a population unable to perform adequate exercise with suspected
or known coronary artery disease and stable chest pain,
probably reflecting the continuous spectrum of disease in the total
population, dobutamine-atropine stress is a safe and
feasible stress technique. Combined with either imaging
modality-echocardiography or 99mTc
sestamibi myocardial perfusion scintigraphy-it provides
useful prognostic information additional to clinical data. For both
imaging modalities, the single most important independent predictor for
future nonfatal MI or cardiac death is any abnormal pattern, while an
ischemic pattern provides additional, independent prognostic
information. If a stress laboratory chooses to use
echocardiography as the routine pharmacological
stress test, the addition of perfusion scintigraphy could
be useful but should be limited to patients with
nondiagnostic echocardiographic studies. If
a center prefers perfusion imaging as the first choice, the addition of
stress echocardiography does not seem
cost-effective.
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Selected Abbreviations and Acronyms |
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Acknowledgments |
|---|
Dr Geleijnse is supported by the Dutch Heart Foundation (grant NHS 94.135) and Dr Elhendy by the Department of Cardiology, Cairo University Hospital, Cairo, Egypt. The authors would like to acknowledge Joyce Postma-Tjoa, nuclear technician, for her invaluable help in maintaining the database and Jeroen Vos, MD, for statistical advice.
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Footnotes |
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Presented in part at the 67th Annual Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association, Dallas, Tex, November 1994, and the Second International Conference of Nuclear Cardiology, Cannes, France, April 1995.
Received October 14, 1996; revision received December 17, 1996; accepted January 9, 1997.
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References |
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