Does real-time radionuclide cineangiography during exercise accurately detect regional and global left ventricular dysfunction in patients with coronary artery disease?
Real-time radionuclide cineangiography during exercise is an effective noninvasive method to detect exercise-induced regional and global left ventricular dysfunction in patients with coronary artery disease.
Although coronary angiography defines regions of potential ischemia in patients with coronary-artery disease, accurate assessment of the presence and functional importance of ischemia requires appraisal of regional and global left ventricular function during stress. To perform such assessment, we developed a noninvasive real-time radionuclide cineangiographic procedure permitting continuous monitoring and analysis of left ventricular function during exercise. In 11 patients with coronary disease who had normal regional and global ventricular function at rest, new regions of dysfunction developed during exercise (P less than 0.001), and in 10, global ejection fraction dropped 7 to 47 per cent. Fourteen age-matched normal subjects were studied; during exercise none had regional dysfunction, and each increased global ejection fraction (average increase, 23 +/- 3 per cent +/-S.E., P less than 0.001 as compared with patients with coronary disease). Radionuclide cineangiography during exercise permits accurate assessment of the presence and functional severity of ischemic heart disease.
Borer et al. (Thu,) studied this question.