Technetium 99m-labeled tetrofosmin myocardial tomography in patients with coronary artery disease: Comparison between adenosine and dynamic exercise stress testing

Background: Pharmacologic coronary vasodilation with adenosine, combined with myocardial scintigraphy, is a useful test for the diagnosis of coronary artery disease (CAD) in patients unable to exercise. It has been demonstrated recently that exercise ^99mTc-labeled tetrofosmin cardiac imaging can be used for the detection of CAD. However, no data are available comparing ^99mTc-labeled tetrofosmin adenosine and exercise tests in the same patients. Methods and Results: The results of adenosine and exercise ^99mTc-labeled tetrofosmin myocardial tomography were compared in 41 patients (37 men and four women; mean age 53±8 years) with suspected or known CAD who underwent coronary angiography. All patients were submitted, on separate days, to three injections of ^99mTc-labeled tetrofosmin (740 MBq intravenously): one at rest, one during bicycle exercise, and one during adenosine infusion (140 μg/kg/min for 6 minutes with injection of ^99mTc-labeled tetrofosmin at 4 minutes). A total of 902 myocardial segments were analyzed quantitatively. One patient had normal coronary vessels, 19 patients had single-vessel CAD, 12 patients had two-vessel CAD, and nine patients had three-vessel CAD (>50% coronary stenosis) on coronary angiography. Adenosine induced a significant increase in heart rate (88±16 beats/min at peak vs 72±11 beats/min at rest; p99mTc-99m-labeled tetrofosmin uptake was observed (r=0.90; p99mTc-labeled tetrofosmin uptake score between exercise and adenosine was observed in 737 (82%) of the 902 segments (kappa value of 0.66). Concordance between the two studies for identification of perfusion status was observed in 809 (90%) of the segments (kappa value of 0.80). Sensitivity and specificity for detection of stenosed vessels were not different for dynamic exercise stress testing and adenosine ^99mTc-labeled tetrofosmin cardiac tomography. Conclusions: Despite different hemodynamic effects, adenosine and dynamic exercise ^99mTc-labeled tetrofosmin single-photon emission computed tomographic imaging provides similar information in the diagnosis and localization of CAD.