Exercise technetium-99m sestamibi tomography for cardiac risk stratification of patients with stable chest pain.

Abstract

As with exercise thallium-201 myocardial imaging, exercise stress technetium-99m MIBI myocardial tomography provides significant independent information concerning the subsequent risk of serious cardiac events (death, myocardial infarction) in patients with stable angina pectoris. The identification of MIBI perfusion abnormalities, in particular, the presence of reversible MIBI defects, was associated with reduced 1-year, event-free survival. The recognized imaging and radiotracer biokinetic differences between thallium-201 and MIBI do not appear to modulate the prognostic value associated with scintigraphic evidence of ischemic myocardial jeopardy in the stable angina population.