Background: stress only gated imaging for assessment of left ventricular systolic function is common despite the fact that for exercise based protocols measures of EF made during stress have been shown to differ from those at rest and can result in clinical misclassification of left ventricular systolic function. It is unclear if this same problem exists with the newer abbreviated, adenosine, low level exercise protocol. We evaluated patients shown to have normal left ventricular function based on rest acquired nuclear gated SPECT images obtained with this hybrid pharmacologic-exercise protocol to ascertain the extent to which stress measured ejection fraction correctly reflected basal resting left ventricular function.

Background: Dyspnea is a common indication for referral for cardiovascular stress testing. We sought to characterize the utility of gated SPECT stress perfusion imaging in patients referred because of a chief complaint of dyspnea. In this group comorbidities included cad 22%, hyperternsion 74%, hyperlipidemia 49%, diabetes 38%, chf 20%, copd 17%.