P3353Safety and performance of stress testing: results from 78220 nuclear cardiology studies performed over 15 years in Brazil

Abstract

Abstract Background Stress testing for nuclear cardiology (NC) is safe for evaluating suspected or known coronary heart disease (CHD). Rates of serious adverse events (SAE) are low, roughly 1 death/myocardial infarction: 10,000 studies. However, this may vary depending on patient characteristics using different stress modalities. Purpose To describe the rates of SAE using different stress modalities in patients referred to NC. Methods We included all patients undergoing NC at Quanta in Curitiba, Brazil from 2003 to 2018. Stress modalities were categorized as: exercise (Ex), dipyridamole (Dip), a hybrid protocol of dypiridamole and low workload exercise (DipEx), and dobutamine (Dob). SAE during/after stress were recorded: cardiac arrest or ST segment elevation myocardial acute infarction (STEMI). Development of second or third degree atrial ventricular block (AVB) during stress and recovery were also recorded. Results From 78220 studies in 61984 patients (47% women, mean age 63 years-old), Ex was the most frequent stress modality (67%), followed by Dip (24%), DipEx (7%) and Dob (1,7%). Patients undergoing Ex were the youngest (mean age 60 vs 70 vs 65 vs 71 years old), the least likely of having hypertension (62 vs 78 vs 76 vs 75%) and diabetes (22 vs 35 vs 32 vs 32%) and had the lowest prevalence of known CHD (26 vs 35 vs 41 vs 30%, for Ex vs Dip vs DipEx vs Dob respectively, p<0.001 for all comparisons). Six patients had cardiac arrest and one STEMI, results in SAE rate of 1:11.144 studies. There was important differences among stress modalities, being higher for pharmacological stress, particularly DipEx (Table). This group had the highest prevalence of known CHD and higher baseline risk. AVB rates were higher when dipyridamole was used. All patients who arrested in the laboratory recovered with treatment. Serious adverse events and stress in NC Adverse event Ex Dip DipEx Dob N=52,237 N=18,848 N=5,824 N=1,311 Cardiac Arrest or MI 1 : 17,412 1 : 9,424 1 : 2,912 None 2nd or 3rd Degree AVb 1 : 4,353 1 : 1,885 1 : 1,941 None Observe how adverse event rates different importantly in patients undergoing different stress modalities in NC. Conclusion In this large 15-year registry, rates of SAE related to stress testing in NC were low, albeit the SAE were much higher with pharmacological stress modalities, particularly with DipEx, which had the highest rate of patients with known CHD. Our findings suggest that the well-known 1:10,000 event rate does not necessarily apply to all stress modalities in NC. Physicians should take patient's baseline risk into account, particularly those requiring pharmacologic stress.