Discordance between exercise SPECT lung Tl-201 uptake and left ventricular transient ischemic dilation in patients with CAD.

BACKGROUND

In patients with coronary artery disease (CAD), the characteristics of those with discordant exercise thallium 201 single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) lung uptake (lung-to-heart [L/H] ratio) and left ventricular (LV) transient ischemic dilation (LVTID) are not well defined.

METHODS AND RESULTS

The population included 310 patients having exercise Tl-201 SPECT and coronary angiography. The population was subclassified into 4 subgroups: increased L/H ratio only, increased LVTID only, both, and neither. The L/H ratio was weakly correlated to LVTID (r = 0.18). The L/H ratio was correlated to the summed difference score (r = 0.26), summed rest score (r = 0.31), summed stress score (r = 0.5), and rest and stress LV volume (r = 0.5 and r = 0.54, respectively). LVTID was only correlated to the summed difference score (r = 0.32) and stress LV volume (r = 0.17). Increased LVTID only was associated with more frequent ischemia and patients with it tended to be more extensively ischemic, as compared with patients with increased L/H ratio only, but had a similar angiographic extent of CAD. These results were independent of prior myocardial infarction variable.

CONCLUSIONS

As compared with patients with increased L/H ratio alone, patients with increased LVTID alone are more frequently ischemic but have a similar angiographic extent of CAD. Increased L/H ratio was correlated to both rest and postexercise LV volume, whereas increased LVTID was correlated only to postexercise LV volume.