high negative predictive value of workload ≥7 mets on exercise testing in patients with normal gated myocardial perfusion imaging: was imaging really required?

introduction: good functional capacity has a high negative predictive value (npv) in patients with known or suspected coronary artery disease (cad) similar to a normal gated myocardial perfusion imaging (gmpi). aim of this study was to evaluate npv of functional capacity during treadmill exercise in patients with normal gmpi in pakistani population. methods: this was a prospective study which included 1318 individuals with normal exercise gmpi. on the basis of maximal age predicted heart rate (maphr) and metabolic equivalents (mets) achieved, these patient were divided into group a: ≥ 85% maphr and ≥7 mets (714 patients), group b: ≥85% maphr and