Relationships between myocardial perfusion abnormalities and poststress left ventricular functional impairment on cadmium-zinc-telluride imaging

To evaluate the interplay between myocardial ischaemic burden and poststress left ventricular (LV) systolic and diastolic abnormalities in patients with suspected or known coronary artery disease (CAD).

A total of 471 patients underwent myocardial perfusion imaging by cadmium-zinc-telluride scintigraphy and coronary angiography. A fast imaging protocol was used with stress imaging performed 10 – 15 min after tracer injection. The summed difference score (SDS) and the percent stress-to-rest ratios for LV ejection fraction and peak filling rate (PFR), measures of stress-induced systolic and diastolic impairment, were computed from scintigraphic images. A SDS of >3 was considered abnormal and >7 a marker of moderate-to-severe ischaemia.

Of the 471 patients, 321 (68 %) showed significant CAD in one (27 %), two (23 %) or three (18 %) vessels. The extent of CAD associated with gradual alterations in SDS (P < 0.001). Interestingly, while impairment in the percent stress-to-rest PFR ratio paralleled the increase in the extent of CAD (P < 0.001 for trend), the occurrence of significant stress-induced systolic dysfunction was limited to patients with multivessel disease (P < 0.001 vs. patients without CAD, and P = 0.002 vs. patients with single-vessel disease). Similarly, while a strict correlation between percent stress-to-rest PFR ratio and myocardial ischaemic burden was evident (P < 0.001), significant stress-induced LV systolic impairment was limited to patients with moderate-to-severe ischaemia (P < 0.001 vs. patients with no or mild ischaemia).

Stress-induced LV diastolic impairment is associated with a less extensive ischaemic burden and CAD extent than poststress systolic dysfunction, which is limited to patients with multivessel CAD.