title: The role of treadmill exercise testing in women.
abstract: Treadmill exercise electrocardiogram (ECG) is one of the most commonly used noninvasive tests for the assessment of ischemic heart disease (IHD). Sex-specific challenges in diagnostic and prognostic tests methods for IHD outlined the importance of pretest probability evaluation and referral bias using risk-prediction charts available for both asymptomatic and symptomatic women. Accordingly, exercise ECG has been indicated as the initial test for the symptomatic women at intermediate risk of IHD who has a normal resting ECG and is capable of maximal exercise. However, the difficulties of using exercise testing for diagnosing IHD in women have led to an initial speculation that stress imaging may be preferred to standard stress testing. This editorial analyzed a large body of evidence on the diagnostic and prognostic powers of treadmill ECG and exercise myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) according to new advanced imaging technologies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Advanced Biomedical Sciences, University Federico II, Via Pansini 5, 80131, Naples, Italy. acampa@unina.it.|Institute of Biostructure and Bioimaging, National Council of Research, Naples, Italy. acampa@unina.it.
authors.forename: Wanda
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Acampa
authors.affiliation: Department of Advanced Biomedical Sciences, University Federico II, Via Pansini 5, 80131, Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Roberta
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Assante
authors.affiliation: Department of Advanced Biomedical Sciences, University Federico II, Via Pansini 5, 80131, Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Emilia
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Zampella
mesh_terms: D057791:Cardiac Imaging Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D004562:Electrocardiography / Q000379:methods*; D005080:Exercise Test / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D017202:Myocardial Ischemia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011379:Prognosis; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D063507:Sexism; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon / Q000379:methods*; D016387:Women's Health
keywords: Exercise: stress testing; ischemic heart disease; women