Are there any guarantees with the warranty period for normal stress SPECT myocardial perfusion imaging?

Excerpt

The Oxford English dictionary defines a warranty as a written guarantee from the manufacturer promising to repair or replace a product within a specified period of time. In this issue of the journal Acampa et al. report the warranty period of a normal stress myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) in hypertensive patients.1 The authors determined the warranty period as the length of time that a patient would remain at low risk, defined as a < 3% cumulative event rate for cardiac death or non-fatal myocardial infarction (MI) based on 6 years of follow up. Although a reassuring term, a warranty period does belie the sense of uncertainty in clinical medicine and may foster an indifferent approach to lifestyle and therapeutic compliance. If interpreted appropriately, a warranty period can nevertheless provide useful risk stratification data to physicians and their patients. …