Diagnostic Performance of Treadmill Exercise Cardiac Magnetic Resonance: The Prospective, Multicenter Exercise CMR's Accuracy for Cardiovascular Stress Testing (EXACT) Trial

BACKGROUND Stress cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) has typically involved pharmacologic agents. Treadmill CMR has shown utility in single-center studies but has not undergone multicenter evaluation. METHODS AND RESULTS Patients referred for treadmill stress nuclear imaging (SPECT) were prospectively enrolled across 4 centers. After rest (99m)Tc SPECT, patients underwent resting cine CMR. In-room stress was then performed using an MR-compatible treadmill with continuous 12-lead electrocardiogram monitoring. At peak stress, (99m)Tc was injected, and patients rapidly returned to the MR scanner isocenter for real-time, free-breathing stress cine and perfusion imaging. After recovery, cine and rest perfusion followed by late gadolinium enhancement acquisitions concluded CMR imaging. Stress SPECT was then acquired in adjacent nuclear laboratories. A subset of patients not referred for invasive coronary angiography within 2 weeks of stress underwent coronary computed tomography angiography. Angiographic data available in 94 patients showed sensitivity of 79%, specificity of 99% for exercise CMR with positive predictive value of 92% and negative predictive value of 96%. Agreement between treadmill stress CMR and angiography was strong (κ=0.82), and moderate between SPECT and angiography (κ=0.46) and CMR versus SPECT (κ=0.48). CONCLUSIONS The multicenter EXACT trial indicates excellent diagnostic value of treadmill stress CMR in typical patients referred for exercise SPECT.