Study Predicts Clinical Outcomes With Cardiac Imaging

Recent study has revealed that, imaging along with noninvasive angiography, helps provide significant information to physicians caring for patients with coronary artery disease (CAD).

The research was presented yesterday at the 15th Annual Scientific Session of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology.

The outcome from the Study of Myocardial Perfusion and Coronary Anatomy Imaging Roles in CAD (SPARC), Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT or SPET), Positron emission tomography (PET), and 64-slice coronary CT Angiography (CCTA), suggests that, valuable pre-imaging data can be provided for the prediction of clinical trials.

3,019 patients, that had either, had already suffered from CAD or high-risk were examined in order to compare the incremental prognostic value of SPECT, PET, and CCTA. 932 patients underwent SPECT, PET was performed in 1,170 patients, and a CCTA study for 917 patients was assigned. Another 390 patients were not included in the final investigation owing to early revascularization or voluntary withdrawal.

Out of the final 2,629 patients, included in the examination, 84 events occurred during the first year of follow-up (42 all-cause deaths, 16 myocardial infarctions, and 26 revascularizations). Analysis of pre-imaging data revealed age, diabetes, prior myocardial infarction, and academic centers were most closely associated with the events. The addition of imaging result and modality to this pre-imaging data was shown to be significant, and the authors conclude that SPECT, PET, and CCTA can help physicians stratify patient risk and predict one-year adverse events.

Dr. Rory Hachamovitch will present this study, "Predicting Clinical Outcomes with Noninvasive Cardiac Imaging: One-Year follow up results from the SPARC study" Saturday, September 25, 2010 at 12:00 p.m. in the Grand Ballroom, Salon H of the Marriott Downtown Philadelphia.

Source: American Society of Nuclear Cardiology