Evaluation of abnormal heart-rate recovery after exercise testing in patients with diabetes mellitus: correlation with myocardial SPECT and chronotropic parameters.

Objective: Diabetes is associated with abnormal function of the autonomic nervous system, while autonomic dysfunction is related to attenuated heart-rate recovery (HRR) after exercise testing. The purpose of this study was to test whether HRR could be a useful index of myocardial ischaemia in patients suffering from diabetes mellitus.

Methods: We included 206 consecutive patients in this study and excluded patients whose HRR value or the myocardial perfusion imaging could have been influenced by factors other than myocardial ischaemia.

Early post-stress pulmonary uptake of 99mTc tetrofosmin during exercise (SPECT) myocardial perfusion imaging: correlation with haemodynamic, perfusion and function parameters.

Objective: To test the association of early post-stress lung/heart ratio (LHR) of 99mTc tetrofosmin radioactivity with gated-SPECT findings and angiographic results.

Methods: We studied 158 consecutive patients, with stress/rest 99mTc tetrofosmin myocardial SPECT and coronary angiography. Rest scans were obtained as gated SPECT and the left ventricular ejection fraction and end diastolic volume were calculated.