Adenosine stress cardiac magnetic resonance imaging for the assessment of ischemic heart disease

This prospective study was designed to determine the diagnostic value of adenosine stress cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMRI) in patients referred to elective coronary angiography.

Myocardial perfusion measurements at rest and adenosine stress were performed in 141 patients (105 men, 36 women, mean age 63.4 years) at 1.5 T with a Turbo Flash sequence. Stress-induced perfusion deficits were correlated to angiographic stenoses ≥75%. The overall sensitivity for CMRI depicting coronary artery disease (CAD) with relevant stenoses was 90.4%, the specificity was 77.4%, the positive predictive value was 85.9%, the negative predictive value was 84.2% and the accuracy 85.2%. Subgroup analysis was performed for 3-vessel disease (n = 44, sensitivity 92.3%, specificity 75.0%), 2-vessel disease (n = 43, sensitivity 92.6%, specificity 92.9%), 1-vessel disease (n = 27, sensitivity 93.1%, specificity 71.4%) and patients without CAD (n = 27, specificity 70.4%) as well as for patients with prior myocardial infarction (n = 44, sensitivity 92.9%, specificity 86.7%), prior coronary artery bypass surgery (n = 21, sensitivity 88.2%, specificity 66.7%), prior coronary interventions (n = 88, sensitivity 91.9%, specificity 75.0%), or diabetics (n = 27, sensitivity 90.5%, specificity 83.3%).

Our study shows that stress perfusion CMRI can accurately predict relevant CAD and contributes to the identification of hemodynamic relevant stenoses in patients scheduled for coronary angiography.