Clinical significance of the hemodynamic gain index in patients undergoing exercise stress testing and coronary computed tomography angiography

BACKGROUND: Many hemodynamic parameters provide limited information regarding obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) during exercise stress testing particularly when exercise is suboptimal. Hemodynamic gain index (HGI) is a recent sensitive indicator of ischemia and has been associated with increased mortality. This study evaluated the clinical impact of HGI in patients who underwent concomitant exercise stress testing and coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA). METHODS: A total of 284 consecutive patients from the executive health program between 2010 and 2018 were identified. Resting and peak heart rate (HR) as well as systolic blood pressure (SBP) measurements were recorded. Framingham risk score (FRS), Duke treadmill score (DTS) and HGI [Formula: see text] were calculated. The latter was divided into quartiles. CCTA was used as a reference test to detect any CAD. Multivariate analysis and artificial neural network were used to determine the independent predictors of obstructive CAD. RESULTS: Mean age was 53 ± 12 years with 83% male. Mean HGI was 1.74 ± 0.67, with cut-off value of severely blunted HGI ≤ 1.25 (Quartile 4). Patients with severely blunted HGI were older, had higher FRS, and worse DTS. Patients with obstructive CAD had lower HGI when compared to those with normal CCTA/non-obstructive CAD (1.36 ± 0.53 vs. 1.77 ± 0.67, P = 0.005), and showed a higher prevalence of severely blunted HGI (44% vs. 22%, P = 0.019). After adjusting for traditional risk factors, HGI remained an independent predictor of obstructive CAD while severely blunted HGI was associated with threefold increased odds of having obstructive CAD (P = 0.05). Using artificial intelligence analysis, severely blunted HGI independently predicted obstructive CAD with an area under the curve of 0.83 and 0.96, and normalized importance of HGI of 100% and 63%, respectively for different models. CONCLUSIONS: Among patients who underwent concomitant exercise stress testing and CCTA, severely blunted HGI independently predicted obstructive CAD after multivariate adjustment for traditional risk factors. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12872-023-03088-z.