A Comparison of False Positive Rates for Regadenoson and Treadmill Exercise in Myocardial Perfusion Imaging

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to find if the pharmacologic stress agent, regadenoson, yields more false positive results than treadmill exercise when doing a myocardial perfusion stress testing. Methods: The subjects for this research were chosen retrospectively and included 34 patients that were stressed with treadmill exercise and the 34 patients that were stressed using regadenoson. All subjects had a positive myocardial perfusion study with either treadmill stress or regadenoson stress and had a subsequent cardiac catheterization procedure within six months of the positive MPI test. The false positive rate was measured for each stress method, using the catheterization results as the reference standard. Results: The false positive rate for patients who underwent treadmill exercise was 24% (8/34). The false positive rate for patients who underwent pharmacologic stress with regadenoson was 35% (12/34). Conculsion: Treadmill exercise for MPI should be utilized whenever possible to prohibit unnecessary cardiac catheterization procedures.