Not infrequently, a physician is faced with uncertainty regarding the ability of a patient to perform adequate exercise in the noninvasive evaluation of known or suspected coronary artery disease (CAD) by the use of radionuclide stress myocardial perfusion imaging. In selected patients, protocols that combine exercise (either low-level or symptom-limited) with vasodilator stress agents have been found to be safe and effective in both identification of the presence and severity of CAD as well as risk stratification for adverse cardiac outcome. However, currently utilized combined stress protocols have drawbacks. Further refinement of combined stress protocols would potentially lead to more appropriate stress protocol selection for patients while enhancing laboratory efficiency. The purpose of this prospective, randomized study will be to evaluate the relative merits of combining regadenoson with symptom-limited exercise in patients clinically-referred for vasodilator-exercise stress myocardial perfusion imaging for the assessment of known or suspected CAD. It is hypothesized that combining regadenoson with symptom-limited exercise is a safe and feasible stress testing modality which is non-inferior to that which combines symptom-limited exercise with dipyridamole.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
DIAGNOSTIC
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
140
Regadenoson (0.4mg/5 mL) injection during symptom-limited exercise with technetium-99m SPECT myocardial perfusion imaging
Dipyridamole (0.56 mg/kg) over 4 minutes followed by symptom-limited exercise with technetium-99m SPECT myocardial perfusion imaging
Hartford Hospital
Hartford, Connecticut, United States
Number of Participants With Major Adverse Events or Side Effects Graded "Severe" on Symptom Questionnaire
Number of participants with any side effect (flushing, shortness of breath, headache, chest discomfort, dizziness, nausea, or abdominal pain) requiring specific treatment or graded as "severe" by the patient; or any death, myocardial infarction, or unplanned hospitalization. Note that 2 patients allocated to exercise-vasodilator stress did not complete symptom questionnaires and are therefore excluded from analysis.
Time frame: 24 hours
Myocardial Perfusion Image Quality
Single photon emission computed tomography myocardial perfusion acquisition and image processing was performed in accordance with American Society of Nuclear Cardiology guidelines. All images were interpreted by consensus read of three investigators blinded to stress test protocol and results. Overall perfusion and gated image quality were described as excellent (no artifacts interfering with myocardial perfusion interpretation), good, fair, or poor (artifact requiring reprocessing or repeat imaging of the patient to allow for diagnostic interpretation).
Time frame: 0 hours
This platform is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional.