Fractional flow reserve in patients with intermediate values of Duke Treadmill Score and borderline coronary lesions

Abstract

Despite the wide usage of exercise ECG tests and Duke Treadmill Score (DTS) in clinical practice, no comparison between this scoring system and Fractional Flow Reserve (FFR) has yet been made, particularly in cases of angiographically verified borderline lesions. Thirty patients with single coronary lesions and angiographically assessed borderline stenosis (between 30-70%) and previously calculated intermediate values of DTS between -10 to +4 were examined using FFR. Adequate specificity and sensitivity (0.769 and 0.556, respectively) were in a more narrow range of -0.5 to -10. Sex and age did not have an influence on the DTS values. There was a correlation between the values of FFR and age (r=0.395, p=0.031) and between angiographic assessment of stenosis and quantitative coronary angiography (QCA) (r=0.648, p<0.0001). In the study population, a decision on revascularization could not be based solely on angiographic or QCA assessment of the artery or on the values of DTS.