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Diagnostic value of clinical risk scores for predicting normal stress myocardial perfusion imaging in subjects without coronary artery calcium

Journal of Nuclear Cardiology volume 29, pages 323–333 (2022)Cite this article

Abstract

Background

We evaluated if risk scores commonly used to predict the absence of significant stenosis at coronary computed tomography (CT) angiography are useful to predict a normal stress myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) study.

Methods

Our cohort included a total of 1422 consecutive patients with zero coronary artery calcium score (ZCS) who underwent 82Rb PET/CT for evaluation of suspected coronary artery disease (CAD). Predictive models were constructed as reported by Genders et al. and Alshahrani et al., and the probability of abnormal summed stress score (SSS) and of reduced myocardial perfusion reserve (MPR) based on these risk scores was assessed.

Results

In the overall population, the prevalence of abnormal SSS was 0.10 and the prevalence of reduced MPR was 0.17 (both P < .001).The observed frequencies of abnormal SSS and reduced MPR vs the probabilities predicted by the Genders and Alshahrani models were above the diagonal identity line, highlighting an underestimation of the observed occurrence by these models. The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve of the Genders and Alshahrani models indicated lack of discriminative ability for predicting abnormal SSS (0.547 and 0.527) and reduced MPR (0.509 and 0.538). The Hosmer–Lemeshow test revealed that both models underestimated the observed occurrence of abnormal SSS and reduced MPR.

Conclusions

Available models were unable to identify among patients with ZCS those with a low probability of a normal stress MPI study. Thus, an optimal approach to rule out from MPI patients without detectable coronary calcium still needs to be improved.

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Abbreviations

MPI:

Myocardial perfusion imaging

CAD:

Coronary artery disease

CAC:

Coronary artery calcium

ZCS:

Zero-CAC score

CT:

Computed tomography

PET:

Positron emission tomography

ACC:

American College of Cardiology

AHA:

American Heart Association

SSS:

Summed stress score

SDS:

Summed difference score

MBF:

Myocardial blood flow

MPR:

Myocardial perfusion reserve

ROC:

Receiver operating characteristic

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Disclosure

R Megna, C. Nappi, R. Assante, E. Zampella, V. Gaudieri, T. Mannarino, R. Green, V. Cantoni, A. D’Antonio, P. Arumugam, W. Acampa, M. Petretta, and A. Cuocolo declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Author information

Affiliations

  1. Institute of Biostructure and Bioimaging, National Council of Research, Naples, Italy

    Rosario Megna PhD, Valeria Gaudieri MD, PhD & Wanda Acampa MD, PhD

  2. Department of Advanced Biomedical Sciences, University Federico II, Via Pansini 5, 80131, Naples, Italy

    Carmela Nappi MD, PhD, Valeria Gaudieri MD, PhD, Teresa Mannarino MD, Roberta Assante MD, PhD, Emilia Zampella MD, PhD, Roberta Green PhD, Valeria Cantoni PhD, Adriana D’Antonio MD, Wanda Acampa MD, PhD & Alberto Cuocolo MD

  3. Department of Nuclear Medicine, Central Manchester Foundation Trust, Manchester, UK

    Parthiban Arumugam MD

  4. Department of Translational Medical Sciences, University Federico II, Naples, Italy

    Mario Petretta MD

Authors
  1. Rosario Megna PhD
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  2. Carmela Nappi MD, PhD
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  3. Valeria Gaudieri MD, PhD
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  6. Emilia Zampella MD, PhD
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  9. Adriana D’Antonio MD
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  13. Alberto Cuocolo MD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alberto Cuocolo MD.

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Cite this article

Megna, R., Nappi, C., Gaudieri, V. et al. Diagnostic value of clinical risk scores for predicting normal stress myocardial perfusion imaging in subjects without coronary artery calcium. J. Nucl. Cardiol. 29, 323–333 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12350-020-02247-5

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Keywords

  • CAD
  • PET
  • MPI
  • diagnostic and prognostic application