Quantitative blood flow evaluation of vasodilation-stress compared with dobutamine-stress in patients with end-stage liver disease using 82 Rb PET/CT

Our aim was to determine if end-stage liver disease (ESLD) is associated with an attenuated response to vasodilator-stress or dobutamine-stress using Rb-PET MPI with blood flow quantification. Pre-liver transplant patients who had a normal dipyridamole-stress (n = 27) or dobutamine-stress (n = 26) Rb PET/CT MPI study with no identifiable coronary artery calcium were identified retrospectively and compared to a prospectively identified low-risk of liver disease dipyridamole-stress control group (n = 20). The dipyridamole-stress liver disease group had a lower myocardial flow reserve (MFR) (1.89 ± 0.79) than the control group (2.79 ± 0.96, P