Diagnostic value and incremental contribution of bicycle exercise, first-pass radionuclide angiography, and 99mTc-labeled sestamibi single-photon emission computed tomography in the identification of coronary artery disease in patients without infarction.

Background: The diagnostic value and incremental contribution of different noninvasive tests to the identification of coronary artery disease in 128 patients from a general population with intermediate pretest likelihood (48.0%) were determined by ordered logistic regression analysis and receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves.

Methods And Results: Patients referred for suspicion of coronary heart disease were submitted to bicycle exercise testing under clinical and electrocardiographic control.

Escherichia coli endocarditis of a native mitral valve with paravalvular pseudoaneurysm formation and fatal hemopericardium.

Until recently only few cases have been described of acute infective endocarditis with E. Coli limited to a normal native mitral valve. Furthermore, mechanisms of so called abcess formation and rupture are still uncompletely understood.

Improvement in the efficacy of exercise first-pass radionuclide angiocardiography in detecting coronary artery disease and the effect of patient age.

The most widely used criterion of normality during exercise radionuclide angiocardiography (a five EF units increase in left ventricular ejection fraction from rest to exercise) has been established in young, healthy volunteers resulting in a relatively low specificity when applied to older, less fit patients or in women. In a group of 57 patients ranging in age from 22 to 79 years with a low likelihood of coronary artery disease, the age of the patient was the only independent variable predicting left ventricular ejection fraction change during exercise. The efficacy of a new age-based criterion for the diagnosis of coronary artery disease was then evaluated in 115 patients with chest pain undergoing both exercise first-pass radionuclide angiocardiography and coronary arteriography.

Comparison between exercise myocardial perfusion and wall motion using 201Tl and 191Irm simultaneously.

By exploiting the ultrashort half-life 191Irm as tracer for left ventricular first-pass angiocardiography and 201Tl as myocardial perfusion agent, direct comparison between myocardial perfusion and regional wall motion was obtained during the same exercise stress test in patients with non-significant coronary artery disease, in patients with recent myocardial infarction, and in patients six weeks after successful percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA). A good agreement between regional myocardial perfusion and regional wall motion was observed in patients with non-significant coronary artery disease and in most patients with recent myocardial infarction. In contrast, discrepancies occurred at maximal exercise in patients studied six weeks after successful PTCA: only 38% of the patients with no evidence of restenosis and with a completely normal myocardial perfusion scintigraphy had a normal regional wall motion at maximal exercise stress.