Loading...
We cardiologists have long lived with the idea that the assessment of myocardial viability should inform decisions about revascularization, particularly in patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy, but some studies have questioned this reasonable assumption. In a substudy of the STICH trial (which compared medical therapy alone with coronary artery bypass grafting [CABG] in patients with coronary artery disease and left ventricular ejection fraction [LVEF] of ≤35%; NCT00023595), the presence of myocardial viability was not associated with a survival benefit from CABG at a median follow-up of 5.1 years (NEJM JW Cardiol May 2011 and N Engl J Med 2011; 364:1462). The investigators have now analyzed associations of myocardial viability with LV fun…