Patient management after noninvasive cardiac imaging results from SPARC (Study of myocardial perfusion and coronary anatomy imaging roles in coronary artery disease).

Objectives: This study examined short-term cardiac catheterization rates and medication changes after cardiac imaging.

Background: Noninvasive cardiac imaging is widely used in coronary artery disease, but its effects on subsequent patient management are unclear.

Methods: We assessed the 90-day post-test rates of catheterization and medication changes in a prospective registry of 1,703 patients without a documented history of coronary artery disease and an intermediate to high likelihood of coronary artery disease undergoing cardiac single-photon emission computed tomography, positron emission tomography, or 64-slice coronary computed tomography angiography.

Off-pump and on-pump coronary artery bypass grafting are associated with similar graft patency, myocardial ischemia, and freedom from reintervention: long-term follow-up of a randomized trial.

Background: The Surgical Management of Arterial Revascularization Therapies trial was conceived to rigorously compare completeness of revascularization, clinical outcomes and resource utilization in unselected patients referred for elective, primary coronary artery bypass grafting randomly assigned to undergo off-pump (OPCAB) or conventional on-pump coronary artery bypass grafting using cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). The goal of this follow-up study was to compare long-term survival, graft patency, myocardial ischemia, and clinical outcomes among survivors who volunteered to return for clinical evaluation and imaging studies.

Methods: Two hundred unselected patients with multivessel coronary artery disease were randomly assigned to OPCAB or CPB coronary artery bypass grafting between March 2000 and August 2001.

Myocardial viability assessment by PET: (82)Rb defect washout does not predict the results of metabolic-perfusion mismatch.

Unlabelled: PET is a sensitive technique for the identification of viable myocardial tissue in patients with coronary disease. Metabolic assessment with (18)F-FDG is considered the gold standard for assessment of viability before surgical revascularization. Prior research has suggested that viability may be assessed with washout of (82)Rb between early and late resting images.