Comparison of cardiovascular magnetic resonance to single-photon emission computed tomography in women with suspected coronary artery disease: a CE-MARC sub-study

Methods CE-MARC was a prospective study of 752 patients with suspected angina. All patients were scheduled for CMR, SPECT and X-ray coronary angiography. Multi-parametric CMR comprised adenosine stress/rest perfusion, cine imaging, late gadolinium enhancement and MR coronary angiography. Gated adenosine stress/rest SPECT was performed using 99mTc-tetrofosmin. The primary outcome was the diagnostic accuracy of multi-parametric CMR and SPECT to detect CAD in female and male subgroups. A secondary outcome was a comparison of the perfusion-only components of CMR and SPECT in both sexes according to LV mass and disease extent, and in females according to bra size.