For Some, Cardiac MRI Better at Predicting Heart Disease

Technique also predicts heart attack and death in troponin-negative patients

MONDAY, April 10 (HealthDay News) -- Compared with clinical risk factors, adenosine cardiac magnetic resonance imaging is better at predicting the future risk of coronary heart disease, heart attack and death in troponin-negative patients with chest pain and acute myocardial infarction, according to a study in the April 4 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Andrew E. Arai, M.D., and colleagues from the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., performed adenosine stress cardiac magnetic resonance imaging on 135 troponin-negative patients who presented to the emergency room with chest pain and acute myocardial infarction. Patients were contacted after one year to determine the incidence of significant coronary artery disease.

The researchers found that cardiac magnetic resonance imaging predicted coronary artery disease with 100 percent sensitivity and 93 percent specificity. An abnormal result was more significant than clinical risk factors in predicting a future diagnosis of coronary artery disease, myocardial infarction and death.

"In patients with chest pain who had myocardial infarction excluded by troponin-I and non-diagnostic electrocardiograms, an adenosine cardiac magnetic resonance examination predicted with high sensitivity and specificity which patients had significant coronary artery disease during one-year follow-up," the authors conclude.

Abstract
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