Stress perfusion CMR reliably risk stratifies patients with prior exercise treadmill testing

Background ETT is an inexpensive and easily accessible non-invasive test. However it affords only modest sensitivity and specificity for ischaemic heart disease (IHD). Accordingly ETT can often provide results that are either equivocal or which run contrary to clinical suspicion. Therefore, clinicians frequently request an additional non-invasive test to clarify matters. Adenosine stress perfusion CMR has been shown to have a high sensitivity and specificity for the detection of IHD. We sought to evaluate a cohort of patients who had a recent ETT followed by stress perfusion CMR to examine the clinical utility of CMR in risk stratifying these patients.