RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Assessment of Cardiac Stress Tests
JF Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
JO J. Nucl. Med. Technol.
FD Society of Nuclear Medicine
SP 267
OP 270
VO 23
IS 4
A1 Owens, Thomas P.
A1 Hung, Joseph C.
A1 Glynn, Robert B.
A1 Gibbons, Raymond J.
YR 1995
UL http://tech.snmjournals.org/content/23/4/267.abstract
AB Objective: The goal of our study was to perform a quality assurance evaluation of our nuclear cardiology laboratory to ensure that patients who underwent exercise stress testing reached an adequate exercise level to accurately evaluate coronary blood flow with a nuclear cardiology perfusion scan. Methods: We evaluated 282 outpatient cardiac stress test studies. A drug usage evaluation checklist was completed for each patient to determine what test to perform on the patient. Results: Exercise stress tests were done on 180 of 282 patients (63.8%), and 102 of 282 (36.2%) had pharmacologic stress testing. Of exercise stress test patients, 145 of 180 (80.6%) met at least one of the criteria and the exercise was considered adequate. Of the 35 patients who did not meet any of the criteria, 26 (74.3%) were on calcium channel antagonists or beta blockers. Conclusions: We concluded: (1) 80% of the exercise stress tests done in our laboratory are adequate by usual criteria; (2) reaching a heart rate ≥ 85% of maximum comprised the majority of the adequate tests (>80%); (3) ischemic endpoints (angina, positive ECG or both) at a lower heart rate occurred in < 20% of the adequate tests; (4) most patients with inadequate tests were on pharmacologic therapy; and (5) further DUE study is necessary to determine if the inadequate tests still provide adequate data for clinical decision making.