Prognostic implications of the difference between left ventricular ejection fractions after stress and at rest in addition to the quantification of myocardial perfusion abnormalities obtained with gated SPECT.

Background: The prognostic significance of the difference between poststress and at rest left ventricular ejection fraction (ΔLVEF) in patients sent for diagnostic myocardial perfusion study (MPS) is not well characterized. The purpose of this study was to prospectively evaluate the ability of ΔLVEF in further risk stratifying these patients in addition to the severity/extent of myocardial perfusion abnormalities expressed as the total perfusion deficit at stress (sTPD), according to the type of stress used.

Methods And Results: Two-day 99mTc-MIBI MPS after stress and rest were obtained for 507 patients subdivided according to the type of stress used, sTPD values, and ΔLVEF.