Vascular dysfunction measured by fingertip thermal monitoring is associated with the extent of myocardial perfusion defect.
BACKGROUND
Previous studies have shown that vascular dysfunction measured by digital thermal monitoring (DTM) during an arm-cuff reactive hyperemia procedure correlates with the severity of coronary artery disease measured by coronary artery calcium in asymptomatic patients. Current study investigates the correlation between DTM and abnormal myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI).


METHODS
About 116 consecutive patients with chest discomfort, age 57 +/- 10 years, underwent MPI, DTM and Framingham Risk Score (FRS) assessment. Fingertip temperature rebound (TR), DTM index of vascular reactivity, was assessed after a 2-minute arm-cuff reactive hyperemia test. The extent of myocardial perfusion defect was measured by summed stress score (SSS).


RESULTS
TR decreased from SSS < 4 (1.61 +/- 0.15) to 4 < or = SSS < or = 8 (0.5 +/- 0.22) to 9 < or = SSS < or = 13 (0.26 +/- 0.15) to SSS > 13 (-0.37 +/- 0.19) (P = .0001). After adjusting for cardiac risk factors, the odds ratio of the lowest versus two upper tertiles of TR was 3.93 for SSS > or = 4 and 9.65 for SSS > or = 8 compared to SSS < 4. TR correlated well with SSS (r = -0.88, P = .0001). Addition of TR to FRS increased the area under the ROC curve to predict abnormal MPI, SSS > or = 4, from 0.65 to 0.84 (P < .05).


CONCLUSIONS
Vascular dysfunction measured by DTM is associated with the extent of myocardial perfusion defect independent of age, gender, and cardiac risk factors.
Ahmadi
Naser
N
Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute, Harbor UCLA Medical Center, 1124 W. Carson Street, RB2, Torrance, CA 90502, USA.
Usman
Nudrat
N
Shim
John
J
Nuguri
Vivek
V
Vasinrapee
Panukorn
P
Hajsadeghi
Fereshteh
F
Wang
Zhiying
Z
Foster
Gary P
GP
Nasir
Khurram
K
Hecht
Harvey
H
Naghavi
Morteza
M
Budoff
Matthew
M
D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D005385:Fingers / Q000098:blood supply / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D055414:Myocardial Perfusion Imaging / Q000379:methods; D016491:Peripheral Vascular Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013817:Thermography / Q000379:methods*; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon / Q000379:methods*