Diagnostic usefulness of the post-exercise systolic blood pressure response for the detection of coronary artery disease in patients with diabetes mellitus

Patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) often have a positive result on exercise testing despite a normal coronary arteriogram, which indicates that exercise-induced ST depression is not always an accurate indicator of the presence of coronary artery disease (CAD) in such patients. The present study evaluated the usefulness of the post-exercise systolic blood pressure (SBP) response for the detection of CAD in 47 consecutive patients with DM. Significant stenotic lesions were detected by angiography in 25 patients; 18 of these had true positive (TP) exercise testing results, and 7 had false negative (FN) results, No significant stenotic lesions were detected in the remaining 22 patients and of these 10 had true negative (TN) exercise testing results, and 12 had false positive (FP) results. The SBP ratio (SBP after 3 min of recovery divided by the SBP at peak exercise) was significantly higher in patients with coronary stenoses than in those without. Analysis of the relative cumulative frequency revealed that a SBP ratio greater than 0.87 was associated with significant stenoses. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of ST change combined with a SBP ratio greater than 0.87 for detecting stenoses in patients with DM were 68%, 82%, and 74%, respectively. These results suggest that calculating the SBP ratio, in combination with monitoring for ST depression, improves the accuracy of treadmill exercise testing for the detection of CAD in patients with DM.