Assessment of patients with low-risk chest pain in the emergency department: Head-to-head comparison of exercise stress echocardiography and exercise myocardial SPECT

The aim of the study was to compare head-to-head the performance of exercise tolerance test–stress echocardiography (ex-Echo) and exercise stress-perfusion nuclear imaging (exercise–single-photon emission computed tomography [ex-SPECT]) for the diagnosis of coronary artery disease (CAD) in patients evaluated at the chest pain unit with delay from chest pain (CP) onset. As an early triage strategy for CAD in emergency medicine, ex-Echo could have the advantage of widespread availability and low costs. In the years 2000-2002, 503 consecutive patients (mean age 60 years) with recent (