Acampa Wanda, Spinelli Letizia, Petretta Mario, Salvatore Marco, Cuocolo Alberto
Department of Biomorphological and Functional Sciences, Institute of Biostructure and Bioimages, National Council of Research, Naples, Italy.
Am J Cardiol. 2005 Jul 1;96(1):13-6. doi: 10.1016/j.amjcard.2005.02.035.
We enrolled 196 patients who had myocardial infarction and no ischemia on dobutamine stress echocardiography (DSE) and/or single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). Negative studies were observed in 125 patients on DSE and in 159 on SPECT. Patients were followed for 43 +/- 14 months. Cardiac events occurred in 14% of patients who did not have ischemia on DSE and in 9% of patients who did not have ischemia on SPECT. Event-free survival rate was higher in the presence of negative findings on SPECT compared with DSE (p <0.05). The lack of residual myocardial ischemia on SPECT identifies patients at low risk of events, and a negative finding on stress SPECT is superior to a negative finding on DSE.
