Abstract
Background
Cardiac stress testing is a cornerstone of risk stratification and management in patients with chronic coronary disease (CCD), yet the consistency and accuracy of its interpretation remain poorly defined. This analysis evaluated variation in the interpretation of myocardial ischemia between enrollment sites and core laboratories in the ISCHEMIA trial.
Methods
ISCHEMIA was a global (37 countries, 2012–2018) randomized trial of an initial invasive versus conservative strategy in patients with CCD and moderate or severe ischemia. This analysis included participants with site-interpreted qualifying stress tests—nuclear, echocardiography (echo), cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR), or exercise tolerance test (ETT)—and independent core laboratory adjudication. Core laboratories, serving as the reference standard, reinterpreted tests blinded to site results. A trinary outcome variable (site underestimation, concordance, or overestimation) was defined by comparing site-determined ischemia levels to standardized core lab assessments. Adjusted mixed-effects logistic regression models with random site intercepts assessed variability.
Results
Among 6,971 participants (mean age 62.8 years; 73% men), site interpretations showed 0% no/mild (by design), 43% moderate, and 57% severe ischemia. Core labs reclassified these as 8% none, 11% mild, 30% moderate, and 51% severe ischemia. For the imaging modalities, median site-core lab agreement rates were ~55%; nearly 25% of site-classified moderate/severe cases were downgraded to no or mild ischemia by core labs. Adjusted MORs for site overestimation were 2.36 (95% CI: 2.02–2.82; nuclear), 1.98 (95% CI: 1.62–2.60; echo), 1.89 (95% CI: 1.0–5.41; CMR), and 2.15 (95% CI: 1.76–2.79; ETT). Adjusted MORs for underestimation ranged from 1.25 to 1.77.
Conclusions
In ISCHEMIA, enrollment sites frequently overestimated or underestimated the severity of myocardial ischemia compared with core laboratory assessments, highlighting the need for strategies to improve the consistency and accuracy of stress testing interpretation in patients with CCD.
Keywords: Coronary artery disease, ischemia, diagnostic imaging, reproducibility, observer variation, quality in healthcare
INTRODUCTION
Noninvasive cardiac stress testing is foundational to the diagnosis, prognostication, and management of chronic coronary disease (CCD). Clinical guidelines emphasize its role in risk stratification based upon associations between stress test findings and subsequent clinical events reported by expert, high-volume centers.1–4 In 2006, amidst rapid increases in the use of stress testing, the ACC-Duke Think Tank on Quality in Cardiovascular Imaging highlighted key elements of stress test quality, including appropriateness, image acquisition, interpretation, and reporting.5 Around that time, a slew of appropriate use criteria documents were published along with standardized image acquisition protocols and reporting recommendations.6–13 To date, the quality component associated with interpretation has rarely been studied.
To address this gap in knowledge, we leveraged data from the International Study of Comparative Health Effectiveness with Medical and Invasive Approaches (ISCHEMIA), in which both enrollment sites and core laboratories independently interpreted multiple major cardiac stress testing modalities.14 This dual-interpretation framework provides a unique opportunity to measure how frequently site-based assessments of ischemia deviated from standardized adjudications in routine clinical practice.
METHODS
Study Population
The ISCHEMIA trial design, patient characteristics, and primary results have been previously described, and all supporting ISCHEMIA trial data for this study are available online on BioLINCC.14, 15 This secondary analysis of de-identified data was conducted within the established regulatory framework of the original ISCHEMIA trial, which was approved by the institutional review boards at each participating site, and all participants provided written informed consent. Briefly, ISCHEMIA was an open-label trial of patients with CCD and moderate or severe ischemia randomized to either an initial conservative strategy of guideline-directed medical therapy alone or an initial invasive strategy of angiography with coronary revascularization, if feasible, in addition to guideline-directed medical therapy. The prerequisites for site qualification in the ISCHEMIA trial included access to a ≥ 64-slice CT scanner, and the ability to perform stress testing with either nuclear myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI)—single photon emission computer tomography (SPECT) or positron emission tomography (PET)—stress echocardiography (echo), cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR), or exercise tolerance test (ETT). Attenuation correction was encouraged for SPECT MPI and contrast imaging was recommended for stress echocardiography. Clinical sites were given autonomy to decide which stress test modalities they used for recruitment.
ISCHEMIA participants were recruited after undergoing cardiac stress testing for clinical indications with site interpretations demonstrating at least moderate ischemia, except for ETT, in which severe ischemia was required. Separate core laboratories were designated for each of the four stress test modalities and provided feedback to sites on their interpretations during the enrollment period. While the original ISCHEMIA protocol mandated core lab confirmation of at least moderate ischemia prior to randomization, this was changed on January 6th, 2014, to improve recruitment efficiency by enabling sites to enroll patients based upon their interpretations alone.
This analysis leveraged data from all studies provided to the core laboratories for interpretation (n=8518), but excluded those in which the site’s interpretation of ischemia severity was not able to be determined (n=1247), those without a core lab estimate of ischemia severity (n=136), and those where the core lab deemed the study to be uninterpretable (n=164), resulting in a final cohort of 6971 studies.
Interpretation of Stress Testing
During the onboarding process, sites were trained by the core laboratories on the trial-specified enrollment definitions of at least moderate ischemia specific to each imaging modality (Table 1). Given the study’s inclusion criteria, site training focused upon distinguishing at least moderate from mild ischemia, with less attention in distinguishing moderate from severe ischemia. Core laboratories independently adjudicated the qualifying stress tests, blinded to all site (including site-level interpretations) and patient data, except sex. Core labs then independently categorized the severity of ischemia as no, mild, moderate, or severe, based upon contemporary societal definitions.16 Sites were permitted to submit borderline cases for core laboratory review before enrolling a participant, but such studies were not included in these analyses. When sufficient data were present, the imaging coordinating center abstracted sites’ ischemia severity determinations from their clinical reports using detailed data (e.g., segment-level findings) to map their findings to the trial-specified definitions of ischemia. Otherwise, the severity level recorded in the site report’s conclusion was used.
Table 1: Definitions of Myocardial Ischemia Severity Used in the ISCHEMIA Trial, Stratified by Stress Test Modality.
Thresholds shown were applied by core labs for adjudication of ischemia.
| Modality | No Ischemia | Mild Ischemia | Moderate Ischemia | Severe Ischemia |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nuclear Perfusion (SPECT/PET) | 0–4% ischemic myocardium | 5–9% ischemic myocardium | 10–14% ischemic myocardium | ≥15% ischemic myocardium |
| Echocardiography | No new segments with induced severe HK/AK | <3 new segments with induced severe HK/AK | 3 new segments with induced severe HK/AK | ≥4 new segments with induced severe HK/AK |
| Cardiac Magnetic Resonance | No segments with inducible perfusion deficit | ≤3/32 segments (<12.5%) with inducible perfusion deficit | 4–7/32 segments (≥12.5%) with inducible perfusion deficit | ≥8/32 segments (≥25%) with inducible perfusion deficit |
| Stress ECG (ETT) | Normal | ST depression ≥1 mm in at least 2 leads | Satisfying either ECG or functional capacity criteria for “Severe Ischemia” | All the following:
|
Abbreviations: ECG = electrocardiogram, ETT = exercise tolerance test, HK = hypokinesis, AK = akinesis, LBBB = left bundle branch block, LVH = left ventricular hypertrophy, MPHR = maximum predicted heart rate, PET = Positron Emission Tomography, SPECT = Single-Photon Emission Computed Tomography.
The categories of ischemia according to modality are shown in Table 1. The threshold for moderate ischemia was selected to achieve a projected rate of cardiovascular death or MI of at least 5% per year.16 For nuclear MPI, moderate ischemia was defined as ≥ 10% and severe ischemia as ≥ 15% ischemic myocardium with lesser degrees of myocardial ischemia graded as mild (5–9%) or none (< 5%). For stress echocardiography, stress-induced severe hypokinesis or akinesis in 3/16 segments was classified as moderate and ≥ 4/16 segments as severe ischemia, although the core lab could also classify the magnitude of ischemia as mild (1–2 segments) or none (0 segments).
For CMR, perfusion and wall motion abnormalities were considered. Perfusion was adjudicated using a 32-segment model, in which each of the standard 16 American Heart Association segments was subdivided transmurally into an endocardial and epicardial half. This granularity allowed for the conversion of perfusion defects into a percentage of total myocardium, with each individual sub-segment representing approximately 3.125% of the myocardial mass. For perfusion, ≥12.5% (4–7 of 32 subsegments) ischemic myocardium was considered moderate and ≥ 25% (≥ 8 subsegments) was considered severe, whereas <12.5% was considered mild and the absence of any perfusion defect was classified as no ischemia.
For ETT, 4 criteria were required prior to enrollment, including history of stable or exercise limiting angina, absence of baseline ECG abnormalities precluding interpretation of ST segment changes, horizontal or downsloping ST segment changes, and exercise metabolic equivalents. As described in the supplement, an expanded definition of moderate ischemia was allowed for MPI and stress echo, but this only encompassed 1% of enrolled participants.
Statistical Analysis
Overall agreement between site and core laboratory assessments was categorized as a trinary variable—site underestimation, concordance, or overestimation—based upon core lab assessments of none, mild, moderate, or severe ischemia; stratified by stress modality (nuclear, echo, CMR, and ETT). To examine variability across sites within each imaging modality, two series of mixed effects logistic regression models were fit, one for sites underestimating and a one for sites overestimating ischemic severity by at least one category compared with the core lab assessment. All models included random intercepts for site to account for clustering of patients within sites and to estimate between-site variation. In each series, the first model included no fixed effects, providing an estimate of “unadjusted” site variation. For screened patients who were not enrolled, only age, sex, and site were available. The second model included adjustment for patient age and sex, and a third model adjusted for age, sex and geographic region. These models were fit on the entire cohort of 6971 ISCHEMIA participants with site and core lab interpretations. We further evaluated the impact of additional patient factors by repeating the above models with a final step that included characteristics collected only after randomization. These sequential models were constructed as follows: first with no adjustment, then cumulatively adjusting for (1) age and sex, (2) BMI, (3) diabetes, prior myocardial infarction, prior PCI, prior CABG, heart failure, and the Seattle Angina Questionnaire-7 Summary score, and lastly (4) geographic region.
From all models, we converted the between-site variance estimates to median odds ratios (MOR). The MOR represents the median odds of underestimating or overestimating ischemia severity in statistically identical patients tested at one random site vs. another, after adjusting for patient covariates.17 Higher MOR values suggest greater variability across institutions. For example, an MOR of 2.0 means that, for two identical patients seen at two randomly selected hospitals, the odds of one hospital underestimating or overestimating ischemia severity are, on average, twice that of the other hospital. In contrast, an MOR of 1.0 would indicate no difference in site-level interpretations as compared with the core labs. Finally, the distribution of sites’ rates of underestimation, concordance, and overestimation were described using Sankey diagrams and box plots. The box plots were generated using mixed effects multinomial logistic regression models of the trinary outcome with a random effect for site and a fixed effect for geographic region. All analyses were stratified by imaging modality and performed using SAS version 9.4 (SAS Institute, Cary, NC) and R version 4.3.3.18
RESULTS
Study Population
Among 6971 patients, the mean age was 62.8 ± 9.8 years, and 73.4% were male. Recruitment was global—across 320 clinical sites and 37 countries—with participants from Asia (34.2%), Europe (31.2%), North America (25.5%), Latin America (7.3%), and other regions (1.8%). Of those enrolled, 36.7% had a history of diabetes, and 16.3% had a prior myocardial infarction (Table 2). Nuclear MPI was the most frequently utilized stress test (45.6%), followed by ETT (32.7%), stress echocardiography (19.1%), and CMR (2.6%). Figure 1 depicts the site volume-adjusted rates of ischemia severity overestimation and underestimation stratified by modality.
Table 2: Baseline Patient Characteristics.
All enrolled patients in the ISCHEMIA trial with both an enrollment site and a core laboratory cardiac stress test interpretation.
| Characteristic | Distribution of Characteristic | Concordance Rates by Characteristic | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Site Underestimated | Concordant | Site Overestimated | ||
| All patients | 6971 (100.0%) | 9.4% | 61.6% | 29.1% |
| Region | ||||
| Asia | 2387 (34.2%) | 3.9% | 70.7% | 25.4% |
| Europe | 2175 (31.2%) | 9.9% | 55.6% | 34.4% |
| Latin America | 506 (7.3%) | 17.2% | 62.1% | 20.8% |
| North America | 1776 (25.5%) | 13.5% | 56.2% | 30.3% |
| Other | 127 (1.8%) | 15.0% | 63.8% | 21.3% |
| Age | ||||
| <55 | 1357 (19.5%) | 7.5% | 64.4% | 28.1% |
| 55 to 64 | 2505 (35.9%) | 7.9% | 63.0% | 29.1% |
| 65 to 74 | 2317 (33.2%) | 11.0% | 59.9% | 29.1% |
| >=75 | 792 (11.4%) | 12.4% | 57.1% | 30.6% |
| Sex | ||||
| Male | 5118 (73.4%) | 9.9% | 63.3% | 26.7% |
| Female | 1853 (26.6%) | 7.9% | 56.6% | 35.5% |
| Diabetes | ||||
| Yes | 2557 (36.7%) | 9.9% | 64.8% | 25.3% |
| No | 4413 (63.3%) | 9.1% | 59.7% | 31.2% |
| Prior MI | ||||
| Yes | 1122 (16.3%) | 14.1% | 56.0% | 29.9% |
| No | 5777 (83.7%) | 8.5% | 62.7% | 28.8% |
| CCTA results | ||||
| Disease >=70% | 3305 (47.4%) | 11.9% | 72.5% | 15.6% |
| No disease >= 70% | 911 (13.1%) | 5.9% | 58.8% | 35.2% |
| Not evaluable | 800 (11.5%) | 7.4% | 60.6% | 32.0% |
| CCTA not performed | 1955 (28.0%) | 7.5% | 44.8% | 47.7% |
| Stress test modality | ||||
| Nuclear (PET/SPECT) | 3181 (45.6%) | 15.2% | 52.5% | 32.3% |
| ECHO | 1332 (19.1%) | 9.5% | 60.4% | 30.0% |
| CMR | 181 (2.6%) | 24.3% | 55.2% | 20.4% |
| ETT | 2277 (32.7%) | 0.0% | 75.3% | 24.7% |
| Nuclear imaging modality | ||||
| SPECT Sodium Iodide | 2319 (72.9%) | 15.2% | 53.2% | 31.6% |
| SPECT Solid State | 611 (19.2%) | 15.2% | 50.2% | 34.5% |
| PET/CT | 100 (3.1%) | 22.0% | 66.0% | 12.0% |
| PET standalone | 5 (0.2%) | 0.0% | 60.0% | 40.0% |
| Not specified | 146 (4.6%) | 10.3% | 41.8% | 47.9% |
| Echo: contrast used | ||||
| Yes | 517 (38.9%) | 9.1% | 66.0% | 25.0% |
| No | 812 (61.1%) | 9.9% | 57.0% | 33.1% |
| Site assessment of ischemia | ||||
| Moderate | 2982 (42.8%) | 21.9% | 46.3% | 31.8% |
| Severe | 3989 (57.2%) | 0.0% | 73.0% | 27.0% |
| Core lab assessment of ischemia | ||||
| None | 544 (7.8%) | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% |
| Mild | 782 (11.2%) | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% |
| Moderate | 2082 (29.9%) | 0.0% | 66.3% | 33.7% |
| Severe | 3563 (51.1%) | 18.3% | 81.7% | 0.0% |
Abbreviations: CCTA = coronary computed tomography angiography, CMR = cardiac magnetic resonance, CT = computed tomography, ECHO = electrocardiogram, ETT = exercise tolerance test, MI = myocardial infarction PET = Positron Emission Tomography, SPECT = Single-Photon Emission Computed Tomography.
Figure 1: Stress Testing in the ISCHEMIA Trial.

This figure depicts site-level variability in the interpretation of myocardial ischemia severity, stratified by stress test modality, based on core laboratory adjudication. Estimated rates of overestimation and underestimation are shown for 286 participating sites and are adjusted to account for unstable estimates in low-volume centers.
Abbreviations: CMR = cardiac magnetic resonance, ECHO = echocardiogram, ETT = exercise tolerance test
Nuclear MPI
Among 3181 patients enrolled following nuclear stress testing, 72.9% underwent SPECT with sodium iodide detectors, 19.2% SPECT with solid-state detectors, 3.1% PET/CT, and 0.2% standalone PET; 4.6% were unspecified (Table 2). While clinical sites interpreted 78.3% of studies as moderate and 21.7% as severe ischemia, the core lab’s independent interpretation reclassified these as 11.4% with no ischemia, 16.4% mild, 41.7% moderate, and 30.5% severe (Figure 2); comparative site versus core lab interpretation rates across all modalities and sub-modalities are detailed in Table S1. Notably, SPECT studies were more frequently downgraded to no or mild ischemia compared with PET studies (27.7% vs. 11.4%; Figure 3)
Figure 2: Site vs. Core Laboratory Interpretation of Myocardial Ischemia Severity.

Plots illustrate the flow of ischemia severity assessments from site-level interpretation (left-sided rows) to core laboratory adjudication (right-sided rows) across the four stress testing modalities used in the ISCHEMIA trial.
Abbreviations: CMR = cardiac magnetic resonance, ECHO = echocardiogram, ETT = exercise tolerance test
Figure 3: Imaging Stress Tests Reclassified as No or Mild Myocardial Ischemia.

Percentage of cardiac stress imaging tests initially classified as moderate or severe ischemia by enrollment sites with subsequent core lab adjudication of no or mild myocardial ischemia.
Abbreviations: CMR = cardiac magnetic resonance, echo = echocardiogram, PET = Positron Emission Tomography, SPECT = Single-Photon Emission Computed Tomography.
Note: The % data label on the y-axis refers to the overall percentage of studies reclassified by the core lab for each imaging modality.
Across all nuclear stress testing, the median estimated rate between clinical sites and the core lab on ischemia severity was 54.7% (IQR: 47.1% – 59.5%), ranging from 15% – 75% across individual sites (Figure 4). Sites were more likely to overestimate ischemia grade (median: 28.8%; IQR: 22.0% – 39.2%) than to underestimate it (median: 14.9%; IQR: 13.1% – 17.3%). The unadjusted MOR for overestimation was 2.44 (95% CI: 2.09 – 2.92), compared to 1.78 (95% CI: 1.55 – 2.09) for underestimation (Figure 5).
Figure 4: Agreement Between Enrollment Sites and Core Laboratory Assessment of Ischemia Severity Stratified by Stress Test Modality.

Boxplots illustrate the distribution of agreement rates (percentages) between individual enrollment sites and their respective core laboratories, categorized by imaging modality: nuclear imaging, echocardiography (Echo), cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR), and exercise tolerance test (ETT). Data are presented in three categories: site underestimation of ischemia severity, concordant assessments, and site overestimation of ischemia severity. Median agreement percentages and interquartile ranges (IQR) are reported for each modality, demonstrating variability across modalities and sites. For example, while the median site submitting nuclear stress tests was estimated to be concordant with the core lab 54.7% of the time (IQR 47.1, 59.5), one site was estimated to be concordant roughly 15% of the time.
Abbreviations: CMR = cardiac magnetic resonance, ECHO = echocardiogram, ETT = exercise tolerance test
Figure 5: Median Odds Ratios for Site Underestimate and Overestimate Across Imaging Modalities.

Median odds ratio of an enrollment site underestimating and overestimating the severity of myocardial ischemia on a cardiac stress test compared to a concordant read with a core lab, stratified by modality.
Abbreviations: CMR = cardiac magnetic resonance, ECHO = echocardiogram, ETT = exercise tolerance test
Note: The median odds ratio (MOR) quantifies between-site interpretive variability. An MOR of 1.0 indicates no difference between sites, while higher values reflect greater variability. For example, an MOR of 2.0 means the odds of underestimating or overestimating ischemia severity are, on average, twofold higher at one randomly selected site versus another for identical patients
In the subgroup of PET MPI, clinical sites reported 74.3% as moderate and 25.7% as severe, whereas the core lab classified 1.9% as showing no ischemia, 9.5% mild, 44.8% moderate, and 43.8% as severe (Table S2). The median agreement increased to 66% (IQR: 60.6% – 66.4%; Figure S1), PET MPI demonstrated the lowest rate, across all modalities, of site overestimation (median: 11.9%; IQR 11.2% – 13.8%; Figure S1), and site underestimation increased (median: 22.5%; IQR 21.9% – 23.5%; Figure S1). Further details regarding PET, sodium iodide, and solid-state SPECT MPI are provided in the supplement (Figure S2). Additionally, analyses adjusting for additional patient characteristics in the randomized population showed findings consistent with unadjusted results (Figures S3 and S4).
Stress Echocardiography
Of the 1332 participants enrolled with stress echocardiography, clinical sites interpreted 30.1% as moderate and 69.9% as severe ischemia. In comparison, core lab interpretation identified 5.0% with no ischemia, 10.2% mild, 27.4% moderate, and 57.4% severe ischemia (Figure 2). Notably, non-contrast studies were more frequently reclassified as no or mild ischemia compared to contrast-enhanced echo studies (17.7% vs. 11%, Figure 3).
The median agreement rate for stress echo was 56.6% (IQR: 45.4% – 66.1%; Figure 4). Among all modalities, echo demonstrated the highest tendency for site overestimation (median: 33.4%; IQR 21.8% – 48.6%; Figure 4). The MOR for overestimation was 2.09 (95% CI: 1.68 – 2.78), while the MOR for underestimation was 1.54 (95% CI: 1.06 – 2.21; Figure 5); these remained stable after multivariable adjustment.
In the subgroup using contrast (38.9% of studies), the site-reported rates of moderate (26.7%) and severe (73.3%) ischemia were reclassified by the core lab as 3.5% with no ischemia, 7.5% mild, 25.7% moderate, and 63.3% severe ischemia (Table S2). The median agreement increased to 68.5% (IQR: 59.3% – 71.1%; Figure S1), site overestimation of ischemia decreased (median: 22.5%; IQR 19.6% – 32.1%; Figure S1), and stress echo demonstrated the lowest rate, across all modalities, of site underestimation (median: 8.6%; IQR 6.2% – 9.1%; Figure S1). The MOR for overestimation in contrast studies was 1.75 (95% CI: 1.20 – 2.92), and 1.83 (95% CI: 1.13 – 3.57) for underestimation (Figure S2).
Cardiac MRI
Of the 181 participants who underwent CMR, clinical sites interpreted 50.3% of cases as moderate and 49.7% as severe ischemia. The core lab’s interpretation of these same studies identified 4.4% with no ischemia, 7.7% mild, 25.4% moderate, and 62.4% severe ischemia (Figure 2). Consequently, 12.2% of CMR studies were reclassified by the core lab as showing no or mild ischemia (Figure 3).
The median agreement rate for CMR was 54.1% (IQR: 53.0% – 57.2%: Figure 4). Along with PET, CMR was the only modality in which sites were more likely to underestimate ischemia severity (median 25.2%; IQR 19.5% – 26.9%) than to overestimate it (median 19.4%; IQR 17.7% – 23.9%; Figure 4). The unadjusted MOR for site overestimation was 1.98 (95% CI: 1.0 – 5.88) and 1.26 (95% CI: 1.0 – 2.50; Figure 5) for underestimation; these values remained stable after multivariable adjustment.
Non-imaging ETT
Clinical sites submitted 2277 ETTs, all of which were categorized as severe ischemia per study inclusion requirements. Core lab reassessment, however, identified 4.7% with no evidence of ischemia, 4.8% mild, 15.2% moderate, and 75.3% severe ischemia (Figure 2). Compared with other stress test modalities, ETT demonstrated the highest median agreement at 69.4% (IQR: 59.2% – 77.6%; Figure 4). The median rate at which a site overestimated ischemia severity was 30.6% (IQR: 22.4% – 40.8%; Figure 4), with an unadjusted MOR of 2.43 (95% CI: 1.97 – 3.21); these findings remained consistent after multivariable adjustment (Figure 5).
DISCUSSION
Leveraging the unique opportunity afforded by the ISCHEMIA trial—where site interpretations and expert core lab adjudications could be directly compared across multiple modalities of stress testing—we found substantial variability in interpretation of ischemic burden. For imaging-based tests, nearly 1 in 4 studies interpreted by sites as at least moderate ischemia were downgraded by core labs to no or mild ischemia. While the median agreement rates were similar across modalities (~55%), PET MPI, CMR, and contrast-enhanced echo demonstrated lower rates of overestimation and fewer reclassifications to lower-severity categories (Table S3).
Early reports of stress echocardiography and SPECT reproducibility were mixed. Initially thought to have high intra- and interobserver reproducibility, subsequent studies would conclude only fair inter-institutional agreement (kappa 0.37), emphasizing the need for better image quality, standardized digital processing, and uniform reading criteria.19–21 In 2006 and 2009, the ACC–Duke quality statements on cardiovascular imaging identified interpretive variability as a primary threat to diagnostic integrity, recommending systematic internal or external reviews.5, 22
These long-standing concerns are challenged by a small data set from the only core laboratory with metrics available regarding internal reliability. The ISCHEMIA stress echocardiography core lab demonstrated 100% interobserver agreement when expert readers stratified studies into binary categories (“negative” vs. “positive” or “mild/no” vs. “moderate/severe” ischemia).23 Although our analyses evaluate concordance across a more granular spectrum of ischemia, these discrepancies highlight several key takeaways: experienced observers with standardized approaches can achieve minimal variability, the trial’s reference standard is exceptionally stable, and the translation of these standards into routine clinical site interpretation remains a source of significant diagnostic variance.
In the original ISCHEMIA trial, the severity of myocardial ischemia, aggregated across all stress testing modalities, did not correlate with the estimated 5-year event rate. However, recent data from Kwong et al. demonstrate that ischemia severity adjudicated specifically by the CMR core laboratory was associated with 4-year cumulative event rates across all trial endpoints—a correlation not observed in a pooled cohort of SPECT and echo studies.24 Furthermore, patients with no or mild ischemia on CMR experienced zero primary endpoint events over four years, which was not true for SPECT/echo. These pooled modalities also had higher rates of trial exclusion due to insufficient ischemia determined by the core lab or nonobstructive disease on CCTA. These findings suggest that the lower overestimation rates observed with CMR in our study translate into superior prognostic accuracy and more appropriate utilization of invasive procedures; although, the small sample size and low event rate in the CMR group warrant cautious interpretation.
The patterns of interpretive variability here mirror established diagnostic performance data from previous meta-analyses.25 Higher-resolution modalities, such as PET and CMR, which typically demonstrate superior specificity, showed the lowest rates of core lab downgrading. In fact, PET and CMR were the only modalities where sites were more likely to underestimate ischemia severity. Conversely, modalities with traditionally lower pooled specificities—SPECT, non-contrast stress echo, and ETT—exhibited consistently higher rates of overestimation. These findings align with a recent position statement from the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology recommending PET MPI with myocardial blood flow as the preferred modality for patients needing MPI.26
Aside from the differences in technical quality, there are several other potential explanations for the observed interpretive variability. PET and CMR are more prevalent at leading cardiovascular centers, which may correlate with higher interpretive skill. Additionally, while site onboarding emphasized the threshold for moderate ischemia, the distinction between moderate and severe was less prioritized. Our goal, however, was not to assess whether sites could match a core lab under ideal training conditions, but rather to evaluate agreement in usual care. Given that ISCHEMIA sites were pre-screened for quality, encouraged to follow best practices, received training on ischemia grading, and only submitted tests showing at least moderate disease—a fraction of all stress testing performed—these findings likely underestimate the degree of interpretive variation in routine clinical practice.
Designing Future Clinical Trials
Our findings offer critical lessons for future trial design. ISCHEMIA’s inclusion of diverse stress test modalities reflects real-world practice—a decision that favored pragmatism and generalizability. While it is conceivable restricting enrollment to more advanced imaging modalities (e.g. PET or CMR) might have recruited a more phenotypically homogenous population, it would have been more costly, time-consuming, and much less representative of current diagnostic practices. Ultimately, no single imaging modality was immune to site-core lab discordance.
Standardized core lab adjudication remains a formidable challenge. Logistically, real-time review of eligibility constrains recruitment. Indeed, the ISCHEMIA workflow was modified from requiring core lab confirmation of ischemia prior to randomization to relying upon site-based interpretations to improve efficiency. Financially and technically, core labs are resource intensive, and while the core lab is often treated as the gold standard, concerns remain as to which interpretation is correct. Clinical sites may receive an underappreciated benefit from additional clinical context, and core labs may be subject to expectancy bias. Future trials will need to weigh such costs against the benefits of consistent, potentially more accurate, interpretations based upon the study’s goals. For example, core labs may provide superior risk-stratification and characterization of participants for study inclusion, subgroup analyses, or mechanistic insight necessary to explain treatment effects that may justify their inherent cost and complexity. Conversely, for pragmatic trials relying on site-based interpretations, those investigators might consider validating a representative subset of studies through a core lab to ensure participating sites are not diagnostic outliers. Indeed, prior to the initiation of ISCHEMIA, potential clinical sites submitted two qualification stress echoes (one with moderate/severe ischemia and one with mild ischemia) for core lab interpretation with a reported concordance of 81%;27 this is similar to the overall 84.8% agreement rate observed in this analysis when results are dichotomized into “at least moderate” versus “mild/none,” demonstrating longitudinal consistency.
Inaccurate assessments of ischemia lead to inappropriate management. The persistent and substantial variability noted here suggest efforts, such as certification processes, appropriate use criteria, standardized image acquisition protocols and reporting, have been insufficient to ensure consistent, accurate study interpretation in routine practice.28–30 Professional societies should consider developing additional strategies to improve consistency, such as mandatory use of attenuation correction, implementing routine over-reads—particularly for junior staff—prospectively testing artificial intelligence protocols, and stress test laboratories should consider investing in high-resolution modalities when feasible.
LIMITATIONS
These findings should be interpreted within the context of several limitations. First, the generalizability of the observed variability may be constrained due to the careful selection process of clinical sites in ISCHEMIA. Second, while some patients were excluded due to missing site-level interpretations, this was primarily an administrative rather than a clinical issue and is unlikely to have introduced significant selection bias. Third, clinical data for enrolled but non-randomized patients were limited, and core labs—by design—were blinded to the supplemental clinical information typically available to interpreting physicians.
Furthermore, because ISCHEMIA specifically targeted patients with at least moderate ischemia, our analysis is innately limited in its ability to fully characterize site-level underestimation (e.g. assessing cases where a site interpreted a study as mild, but a core lab would have interpreted it as moderate or severe). While it is plausible sites might over-call ischemia to meet recruitment goals, the requirement for core lab adjudication may have conversely deterred the enrollment of such borderline cases. Nevertheless, this analysis highlights a substantial discrepancy between routine clinical practice and these standardized trial benchmarks which is not only a central issue in clinical trial recruitment but also patient care; one which warrants further research to better understand potential opportunities to improve diagnostic accuracy.
CONCLUSIONS
Accurate and consistent interpretation of cardiac stress testing is a cornerstone of high-quality cardiovascular care, directly guiding the management of patients with CCD. In this analysis of the ISCHEMIA trial, comparison between enrollment sites and expert core laboratories reveals marked interpretive variability across all stress testing modalities. These findings highlight a critical gap between routine clinical practice and standardized benchmarks. To ensure diagnostic integrity of cardiac testing, novel strategies—including mandatory minimum technology standards, systematic over-reads, investment in imaging infrastructure, and the prospective testing of artificial intelligence—must be explored to improve the consistency and accuracy of interpretations.
Supplementary Material
What is Known:
Cardiac stress testing is central to management of chronic coronary disease, but variability in interpretation has not been well defined.
What the Study Adds:
In the ISCHEMIA trial, enrollment site interpretation of stress testing frequently differed from core laboratory assessments, achieving only ~55% concordance across modalities. Additionally, nearly one in four site-classified moderate/severe cases were reclassified as showing no or mild ischemia by the core labs. These findings highlight the need for strategies to improve consistency and accuracy in stress test interpretation.
Source of Funding
This project was supported in part by NIH grants U01HL105907, U01HL105462, U01HL105561, U01HL105565, and T32HL110837. The contents of this project are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent official views of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; the National Institutes of Health; or the Department of Health and Human Services.
Disclosures
Dr. E.L. O’Keefe reports funding from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number T32HL110837.
Dr. Sperry reports consulting for Spectrum Dynamics.
Dr. Phillips has served as a consultant for Novo Nordisk.
Dr. Reynolds reports grants from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute during the conduct of the study, non-financial support from Abbott Vascular, Philips, SHL Telemedicine, and Siemens, outside of the submitted work.
Dr. Shaw reports grants from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute during the conduct of the trial and currently.
Dr. Berman receives software royalties from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center outside the submitted work.
Dr. Kwong reports grants from National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute during the conduct of the study.
Dr. Chaitman reports grants from National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute during the conduct of the study, personal fees from Merck, NovoNordisk, Sanofi, Lilly, Johnson and Johnson, Daiichi Sankyo, Tricida, Relypsa, Imbria, and Xylocor outside the submitted work.
Dr. Bateman reports research grants from GEHC, Bracco, Jubilant DraxImage, Spectrum-Dynamics, consultancy on GEHC, Synektik, CVAUSA, equity interest in Cardiovascular Imaging Technologies and royalties from Imagen SPECT and PET software products.
Dr. Bangalore reports grants from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute during the conduct of the study, grants and personal fees from Abbott Vascular, personal fees from Biotronik, Pfizer, Amgen, and Reata outside of the submitted work.
Dr. Maron reports grants from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute during the conduct of the study; consulting fees from Heartflow, Abiomed, Scilex, Regeneron; Honorarium for lecture from Mount Sinai Hospital outside of the submitted work; support for attending meetings and/or travel from the ISCHEMIA Trial and Cleerly Inc; stock options from Ablative Solutions outside of the submitted work; and participation on the Executive Board for the American Society for Preventive Cardiology.
Dr. Hochman was the PI for the ISCHEMIA trial for which, in addition to support by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute grant, devices and medications were provided by Abbott Vascular; Medtronic Inc.; Abbott Laboratories (formerly St. Jude Medical, Inc.); Royal Philips NV (formerly Volcano Corporation); Arbor Pharmaceuticals, LLC; AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, LP; Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp.; Omron Healthcare, Inc.; and financial donations from Arbor Pharmaceuticals LLC and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP. She is also PI for ISCHEMIA-EXTEND.
Dr. Spertus discloses providing consultative services on patient-reported outcomes and evidence evaluation to Abbott, Alnylam, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Janssen, Bristol Myers Squibb, Edwards, Terumo, Cytokinetics, and Imbria. He holds research grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, the American College of Cardiology Foundation, Bristol Myers Squibb, Cytokinetics, Imbria, and Janssen. He owns the copyright to the Seattle Angina Questionnaire, Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire, and Peripheral Artery Questionnaire and serves on the Board of Directors for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City.
All other authors have nothing to report.
ABBREVIATIONS
- CABG
coronary artery bypass grafting
- CCD
chronic coronary disease
- CCTA
coronary computed tomography angiography
- CMR
cardiac magnetic resonance
- Echo
echocardiography
- ETT
exercise tolerance test
- ISCHEMIA
International Study of Comparative Health Effectiveness with Medical and Invasive Approaches
- MOR
median odds ratio
- MPI
myocardial perfusion imaging
- PCI
percutaneous coronary intervention
- PET
positron emission tomography
- SPECT
single photon emission computed tomography
Appendix I: ISCHEMIA Research Group
Kreton Mavromatis
Jason Linefsky
Todd Miller
Subhash Banerjee
Jonathan D. Newman
Robert M. Donnino
Muhamed Saric
Khaled Abdul-Nour
Peter H. Stone
James J. Jang
Gennie Yee
Steven Weitz
Suzanne Arnold
James Henry O’Keefe, Jr
Michael D. Shapiro
Steven A. Fein
Mikhail T. Torosoff
Radmila Lyubarova
Sulagna Mookherjee
Krzysztof Drzymalski
Edward O. McFalls
Santiago A. Garcia
Stefan C. Bertog
Rizwan A. Siddiqui
Areef Ishani
Ronnell A. Hansen
Michel Georges Khouri
Jonathan L. Goldberg
Richard Goldweit
Ronny A. Cohen
Brooks Mirrer
Victor Navarro
David E. Winchester
Marvin Kronenberg
Christopher McFarren
John F. Heitner
Ira M. Dauber
Charles Cannan
Sriram Sudarshan
Puja K. Mehta
Michael McDaniel
Stamatios Lerakis
Arshed Quyyumi
Nanette K. Wenger
Chester M. Hedgepeth
Heather Hurlburt
Alan Rosen
Zakir Sahul
Steve Leung
Hassan Reda
Khaled Ziada
Sampoornima Setty
Rajat S. Barua
Fadi Hage
James E. Davies
Massoud Leesar
Jaekyeong Heo
Amy Iskandrian
Firas Al Solaiman
Satinder Singh
Khaled Dajani
Mohammad El-Hajjar
Paul Der Mesropian
Joseph Sacco
Brian McCandless
Marisa Orgera
Mandeep S. Sidhu
Imran Arif
Hanan Kerr
Jorge F. Trejo (Gutierrez)
Gerald Fletcher
Gary E. Lane
Lynn M. Neeson
Pragnesh P. Parikh
Peter M. Pollak
Brian P. Shapiro
Kevin Landolfo
Anthony Gemignani
Daniel O’Rourke
Judith L. Meadows
Jason T. Call
Joseph Hannan
Robert Bojar
Deepti Kumar
John Mukai
Edward T. Martin
Gabriel Vorobiof
Alec Moorman
Scott Kinlay
Robert J. Hamburger
Thomas P. Rocco
Deepak L. Bhatt
Kevin Croce
Jacquelyn A Quin
Jati Anumpa
Marco Zenati
David P Faxon
Glenn Rayos
Ashraf Seedhom
Lance Sullenberger
Gregory Kumkumian
Steven P. Sedlis
Robert M. Donnino
Jeffrey Lorin
Jacqueline E. Tamis-Holland
Robert Kornberg
Robert Leber
Souheil Saba
Michael W. Lee
Delano R. Small
Wassim Nona
Patrick B. Alexander
Iram Rehman
Umesh Badami
Kevin Marzo
Inga H. Robbins
Howard A. Levite
Sanjay Shetty
Mayuri Patel
Glenn S. Hamroff
Raymond W. Little
Brandi D. Zimbelman
Charles Y. Lui
Brigham R. Smith
Daniel P. Vezina
Lillian L. Khor
Josephine D. Abraham
David A. Bull
Stephen H. McKellar
David Booth
John Kotter
Ahmed Abdel-Latif
Bob Hu
Arthur J. Labovitz
Michael Berlowitz
Philip Rogal
Fadi Matar
Christiano Caldeira
Fatima Rodriguez
Ingela Schnittger
William F. Fearon
Prakash Deedwania
Kiran Reddy
Joseph Sweeny
Christopher Spizzieri
Claudia P Hochberg
William D. Salerno
Ray Wyman
Amer Zarka
Anil V. Shah
Thomas Haldis
Jeffrey A. Kohn
Saket Girotra
Omar Almousalli
Mayil S. Krishnam
Jeffrey C. Milliken
Pranav M. Patel
Arnold H. Seto
Kevin T. Harley
Michael A. Gibson
Byron J. Allen
Rita Coram
Sabu Thomas
Ronald G Schwartz
Wei Chen
Mahfouz El Shahawy
James Stafford
William B. Abernethy
Andrew Zurick
Thomas M. Meyer
Ronald G. Morford
Bruce Rutkin
Sabahat Bokhari
Seth I. Sokol
Jay Meisner
Ihab Hamzeh
Arunima Misra
Matthew Wall Jr.
Veronica Lenges De Rosen
Mahboob Alam
Michael C. Turner
Thomas J. Mulhearn
Arnold P. Good
Nicolas W. Shammas
Robert Chilton
Patricia K. Nguyen
Matthew Jezior
Paul C. Gordon
Thomas Crain
Robert Stenberg
Ronald P. Pedalino
Joseph Wiesel
George J. Juang
Mohammed Al-Amoodi
David Wohns
Ellis W. Lader
Michael Mumma
Lekshmi Dharmarajan
Joseph F.X. McGarvey Jr
Thomas R. Downes
Gary J. Luckasen
Benjamin Cheong
Srinivasa Potluri
Ronald A. Mastouri
Jeffery A. Breall
George E. Revtyak
Jonathan W. Bazeley
Dayuan Li
Kenneth Giedd
Wayne Old
Francis Burt
Kozhaya Sokhon
Deepika Gopal
Uma S. Valeti
Jon Kobashigawa
Sajeev Chakanalil Govindan
Rajesh Gopalan Nair
Cholenahally Nanjappa Manjunath
Nagaraja Moorthy
Satvic Cholenahally Manjunath
Suryaprakash Narayanappa
Neeraj Pandit
Ranjit Kumar Nath
S.K. Dwivedi
V.S. Narain
Sharad Chandra
Gurpreet S. Wander
Rohit Tandon
Sarju Ralhan
Naved Aslam
Abhishek Goyal
G. Karthikeyan
S. Ramakrishnan
Sandeep Seth
Rakesh Yadav
Sandeep Singh
Ambuj Roy
Neeraj Parakh
Sunil Kumar Verma
Rajiv Narang
Sundeep Mishra
Nitish Naik
Gautam Sharma
Shiv Kumar Choudhary
Chetan Patel
Gurpreet Gulati
Sanjeev Sharma
V K Bahl
Anoop Mathew
Eapen Punnoose
Siddharth Gadage
Tapan Umesh Pillay
Santhosh Satheesh
Atul Mathur
Johann Christopher
Rajeev Menon
Nirmal Kumar
Abraham Oomman
Robert Mao
Hilda Solomon
Sajeeda Parveen Khan
Purvez Grant
Ranjan Kachru
Ajit Kumar VK
Sanjay Ganapathi
Jayakumar K
Harikrishnan Sivadasanpillai
Bijulal Sasidharan
Kapilamoorthy TR
Praneeth Polamuri
Upendra Kaul
Keith AA Fox
Kathryn Carruthers
Ahmed Elghamaz
Sothinathan Gurunathan
Nikolaos Karogiannis
Benoy N Shah
Richard HJ Trimlett
Michael B Rubens
Edward D Nicol
Tarun K Mittal
Reinette Hampson
Reto Andreas Gamma
Mark A de Belder
Jeet Thambyrajah
Thuraia Nageh
John R Davies
Steven J. Lindsay
John Kurian
Haqeel Jamil
Osama Raheem
Angela Hoye
Patrick Donnelly
Bernardas Valecka
Anoop Chauhan
Craig Barr
Khaled Alfakih
Jonathan Byrne
Ian Webb
Peter Henriksen
Peter OKane
Ramesh de Silva
Dwayne S. G. Conway
Alexander A Sirker
Stephen P Hoole
Fraser N. Witherow
Nicola Johnston
Mark Harbinson
Simon Walsh
Hanna Douglas
Matthew Luckie
Jolanta Sobolewska
Paramjit Jeetley
Niket Patel
Tushar Kotecha
Christopher Travill
Iqbal Karimullah
Mahmud Al-Bustami
Denise Braganza
Robert Henderson
Kate Pointon
Surendra Naik
Thomas Mathew
Colin Berry
Damien Collison
Giles Roditi
Andrew J Moriarty
Jason D. Glover
Jiwan Pradhan
Mikhail Ghada
Darrel P. Francis
Vladimir Dzavik
Ariel Diaz
Philippe Rheault
Miguel Barrero
Carl-Éric Gagné
Yanek Pépin-Dubois
Ricardo Costa
Ying Tung Sia
Catherine Lemay
Alejandro Gisbert
Pierre Gervais
Alain Rheault
Denis Carl Phaneuf
Gilbert Gosselin
Pallav Garg
Renee C. Hessian
Rob S. Beanlands
Richard F. Davies
Asim N. Cheema
Akshay Bagai
Ron Wald
Shaun Goodman
John Joseph Graham
Mark Peterson
Chi-Ming Chow
Beth Abramson
Asim Nazir Cheema
Mohammad Tariq Vakani
James Cha
Andrew G Howarth
Graham Wong
Amar Uxa
Paul Galiwango
Saleem Kassam
Ashok Mukherjee
A. Joseph Ricci
Andy Lam
Shamir Mehta
Jacob Udell
Philippe Généreux
Adnan Hameed
Ledjalem Daba
Whady Hueb
Paulo Cury Rezende
Alexandre Ciappina Hueb
Paola Emanuela Poggio Smanio
Alexandre Schaan de Quadros
Renato Abdala Karam Kalil
José Luiz da Costa Vieira
Gabriel Grossmann
Pedro Píccaro de Oliveira
Leonardo Bridi
Simone Savaris
João V Vitola
Rodrigo J Cerci
Fabio R Farias
Miguel M Fernandes
José Antonio Marin-Neto
André Schmidt
Moysés de Oliveira Lima Filho
Ricardo Mendes Oliveira
João Reynaldo Abbud Chierice
Carísi A. Polanczyk
Mariana V. Furtado
Luis F. Smidt
Antonio Carlos Carvalho
Gustavo Pucci
Flavio Lyra
Alvaro Rabelo Alves Junior
Marianna D. A. Dracoulakis
Rodolfo G. S. D Lima
Estevao Figueiredo
Paulo Ricardo Caramori
Rogerio Tumelero
Frederico Dall’Orto
Claudio T. Mesquita
Alexandre S. Colafranseschi
Amarino C. Oliveira Jr.
Luiz A. Carvalho
Isabella C. Palazzo
Andre S. Sousa
Expedito Eustáquio Ribeiro da Silva
Pedro Gabriel Melo de Barros e Silva
Luciana de Pádua Silva Baptista
Marcelo Jamus Rodrigues
Marcos Valério Coimbra de Resende
Jose Francisco Saraiva
Costantino Costantini
Witold Ruzyllo
Marcin Demkow
Radoslaw Pracon
Cezary Kepka
Anna Teresinska
Karolina Kryczka
Jan Henzel
Mateusz Solecki
Edyta Kaczmarska
Tomasz Mazurek
Jaroslaw Drozdz
Bartosz Czarniak
Malgorzata Frach (formerly Stasiak)
Konrad Szymczyk
Iwona Niedzwiecka
Sebastian Sobczak
Tomasz Ciurus
Piotr Jakubowski
Magdalena Misztal-Teodorczyk
Dawid Teodorczyk
Aleksandra Fratczak
Marcin Szkopiak
Patrycja Lebioda
Michal Wlodarczyk
Anna Plachcinska
Jacek Kusmierek
Magdalena Miller
Halina Marciniak
Karolina Wojtczak-Soska
Katarzyna Łuczak
Tomasz Tarchalski
Anna Cichocka-Radwan
Grazyna Anna Szulczyk
Adam Witkowski
Krzysztof Kukuła
Małgorzta Celińska-Spodar
Joanna Zalewska
Grzegorz Gajos
Krzysztof Bury
Piotr Pruszczyk
Marek Roik
Krystyna Łoboz-Grudzień
Leszek Sokalski
Barbara Brzezińska
Maciej Lesiak
Magdalena Łanocha
Krzysztof W. Reczuch
Zbigniew Kalarus
Andrzej Swiatkowski
Mariola Szulik
Wlodzimierz J. Musial
Leo Bockeria
Karen Petrosyan
Tatiana Trifonova
Alexander M. Chernyavskiy
Evgeniy I. Kretov
Igor O. Grazhdankin
Leonid L. Bershtein
Sergey A. Sayganov
Anastasia M. Kuzmina-Krutetskaya
Elizaveta V. Zbyshevskaya
Nana O. Katamadze
Elena A. Demchenko
Pavel S. Kozlov
Vikentiy Y. Kozulin
Ekaterina I. Lubinskaya
Jose Lopez-Sendon
Almudena Castro
Elena Refoyo Salicio
Gabriela Guzman
Gabriel Galeote
Silvia Valbuena
Jesús Peteiro
María Dolores Martínez-Ruíz
Ruth Pérez-Fernández
José J Cuenca-Castillo
Xacobe Flores-Ríos
Óscar Prada-Delgado
Gonzalo Barge-Caballero
Jose Ramon Gonzalez Juanatey
Miguel Souto Bayarri
Virginia Pubull Nuñez
Raymundo Ocaranza Sanchez
Belen Cid Alvarez
Carlos Peña Gil
Amparo Martinez Monzonis
Alessandro Sionis
Montserrat Vila Perales
Josep Maria Padró
Antonio Serra Peñaranda
Joan García Picart
Antonino Ginel Iglesias
Xavier Garcia-Moll Marimon
Guillem Pons Lladó
Francesc Carreras Costa
Vicente Miro
Jose L Diez
Pilar Calvillo
F. Marin Ortuño
M. Valdés Chávarri
A. Tello Montolliu
E. Pinar Bermudez
G. De La Morena
Montserrat Gracida Blancas
Jose Enrique Castillo Luena
Francisco Fernandez-Aviles
Jiyan Chen
Yongjian Wu
Yitong Ma
Yining Yang
Zheng Ji
Xinchun Yang
Wenhua Lin
Hesong Zeng
Xin Fu
Songtao Wang
Gong Cheng
Yulan Zhao
Xuehua Fang
Qiutang Zeng
Xi Su
Qingxian Li
Shao-ping Nie
Qin Yu
Jian’an Wang
Shuyang Zhang
Zhenyu Liu
Aldo P. Maggioni
Gian Piero Perna
Marco Marini
Gabriele Gabrielli
Stefano Provasoli
Edoardo Verna
Lorenzo Monti
Barbara Nardi
Antonio Di Chiara
Andrea Mortara
Marcello Galvani
Filippo Ottani
Marco Sicuro
Paolo Calabro
Tiziana Formisano
Giuseppe Tarantini
Umberto Cucchini
Anto Luigi Andres
Emanuela Racca
Carlo Briguori
Roberto Amati
William Vergoni
Aldo Russo
Raffaele Fanelli
Kian-Keong Poh
Ping Chai
Titus Lau
Joshua P. Loh
Edgar L. Tay
Kristine Teoh
Lynette L. Teo
Ching-Ching Ong
Raymond C. Wong
Poay-Huan Loh
Theodoros Kofidis
Wan Xian Chan
Koo Hui Chan
David Foo
Jason Loh Kwok Kong
Ching Min Er
Fahim Haider Jafary
Terrance Chua
Juergen Stumpf
Klaus Matschke
Gregor Simonis
Clemens T. Kadalie
Udo Sechtem
P. Christian Schulze
Bjoern Goebel
Karsten Lenk
Georg Nickenig
Herwig Schuchlenz
Stefan Weikl
Irene Marthe Lang
Kurt Huber
Gabriele, Jakl-Kotauschek
Matyas Keltai
Andras Vertes
Albert Varga
Geza Fontos
Bela Merkely
Gabor Kerecsen
Sasa Hinic
Marija Zdravkovic
Vladan Mudrenovic
Bogdan Crnokrak
Branko D. Beleslin
Nikola N. Boskovic
Marija T. Petrovic
Milan R. Dobric
Zeljko Z. Markovic
Ana S. Mladenovic
Nada Cemerlic-Adjic
Goran Davidović
Rada Vučić
Milica Nikola Dekleva
Goran Stankovic
Svetlana Apostolovic
Jorge Escobedo
Rubén Baleón-Espinosa
Arturo S Campos-Santaolalla
Elihú Durán-Cortés
José M Flores-Palacios
Andrés García-Rincón
Moisés Jiménez-Santos
Joaquín V Peñafiel
José A. Ortega-Ramírez
Aquiles Valdespino-Estrada
Erick Alexánderson Rosas
Deirdre Murphy
Joseph B. Selvanayagam
Majo X. Joseph
Suku T. Thambar
Jamie Rankin (past)
John F. Beltrame
Graham S. Hillis
Christophe Thuaire
Téodora Dutoiu
Jean-Michel Juliard
Michel S. Slama
Rami El Mahmoud
Eric Nicollet
Pascal Goube
Gilles Barone-Rochette
Alain Furber
Loïc Bière
Aleksandras Laucevicius
Elvin Kedhi MD
Jorik Timmer
Rik Hermanides
Eliza Kaplan
Robert K. Riezebos
Pouneh Samadi
Elise van Dongen
Sander R. Niehe
Harry Suryapranata
Stijn van Vugt
Duarte Cacela
Ana Santana
Antonio Fiarresga
Lidia Sousa
Hugo Marques
Lino Patricio
Luis Bernanrdes
Pedro Rio
Ramiro Carvalho
Rui Ferreira
Tiago Silva
Ines Rodrigues
Pedro Modas
Guilherme Portugal
Jose Fragata
Fausto J. Pinto
Miguel Nobre Menezes
Guilhermina Cantinho Lopes
Ana Gomes Almeida
Pedro Canas Silva
Angelo Nobre
Ana Rita Francisco
Nuno Ferreira
Ricardo L. Lopes
Rafael Diaz
Luis Guzman
Julio César Figal
Oscar Méndiz
Claudia Cortés
Roberto René Favaloro
Carlos Alvarez
Javier Courtis
Gabriela Zeballos
Lilia Schiavi
Mariano Rubio
Caroline Alsweiler
Gerard Patrick Devlin
Raewyn Fisher
Ralph Alan Huston Stewart
Harvey Douglas White
Jocelyne Benatar
Sasko Kedev
Irena Peovska Mitevska
Elizabeta Srbinovska Kostovska
Hristo Pejkov
Claes Held
Kai Eggers
Gunnar Frostfelt
Nina Johnston
Maciej Olsowka
Axel Åkerblom
Inga Soveri
Johannes Aspberg
Rafael Beyar
Eugenia Nikolsky
Tali Sharir
Dan Elian
Arthur Kerner
Samia Massalha
Keiichi Fukuda
Shun Kohsaka
Satoshi Yasuda
Shigeyuki Nishimura
Frans Van de Werf
Kathleen Claes
Chung-Lieh Hung
Chun-Ho Yun
Charles Jia-Yin Hou
Jen-Yuan Kuo
Hung-I Yeh
Ta-Chuan Hung
Jiun-Yi Li
Chen-Yen Chien
Cheng-Ting Tsai
Chun-Chieh Liu
Fa-Chang Yu
Yueh-Hung Lin
Wei-Ren Lan
Chih-Hsuan Yen
Jui-Peng Tsai
Kuo-Tzu Sung
Mpiko Ntsekhe
Shaheen Pandie
Charle A Viljoen
Marianne De Andrade
Tiziano Moccetti
M.Grazia Rossi
Magdy Abdelhamid
Ahmed Adel
Ahmed Kamal
Hossam Mahrous
Sameh El Kaffas
Hussien El Fishawy
Calin Pop
Matei Claudia
Bogdan A. Popescu
Carmen Ginghina
Dan Deleanu
Vlad A. Iliescu
Mouaz H. Al-Mallah
Ahmed Aljzeeri
Hani Najm
Ali Alghamdi
Walter Enrique Mogrovejo Ramos
Srun Kuanprasert
Arintaya Prommintikul
Weerachai Nawarawong
Surin Woragidpoonpol
Thitipong Tepsuwan
Noppon Taksaudom
Chataroon Rimsukcharoenchai
Juntima Euathrongchit
Yutthaphan Wannasopha
Sukit Yamwong
Piyamitr Sritara
Suthara Aramcharoen
Krissada Meemuk
Ahmad Khairuddin
Hafidz Abd Hadi
Shaiful Azmi Yahaya
John Doan
Raven Lee
Risha Patel
So Yang Cho
Susan Milbrandt
Dawn Shelstad
Preeti Kamath
Ishita Tejani
Kirsten J. Quiles
Allison Schley
Heather Golden
Hermine Osseni
Charlene Wiyarand
Peter Douglass
Hayley Pomeroy
Alexandra Craft
Bethany Harvey
Olivia Anaya
Phoebe Goold
Steven Giovannone
Lori Pritchard
Rosann Gans
Paul Kennedy
Shobana Ganesan
David Schlichting
Aynun Naher
Wendy L. Stewart
Kristin M. Salmi
Debra K. Johnson
Rebekah R. Herrmann
Kristine Arges
Melissa LeFevre
Jennifer Tomfohr
Kimberly Ann Byrne
Taissa Zappernick
Sallie Canada
Meghana Kakade
Patricia Mieses
Stanley E. Cobos
Raven R. Dwyer
Dalisa Espinosa
Kirsten J. Quiles
Magdalena Rantinella
Jessica Rodriguez
Olivia Mancilla
Susan Stinson
Terry Weyand
Sherron C. Crook
Jean Ho
Saadat Khan
Mahmoud Mohamed
Mary R. Soltau
Delsa K. Rose
Rebecca J. Wimmer
Kathy E. Siegel
Susan Derbyshire
Michelle Dixon
Gerald Leonard
Ciarra Heard
Viviana Gabriel
Sukie Desire
Fauzia Rashid
Senait Asier
Keyur Patel
Jennifer Gillis
Megan Manocchia
Susan Moore
Elizabeth Congdon
Gail Brandt
Nora Marchelletta
Kristina Wippler
Kimberly E. Halverson
Christine Roraff
Jonean Thorsen
Amarachi Ojajuni
Oni Olurinde
Kamalakar Surineni
Badhma Valaiyapathi
Carol M. Kartje
Michele Rawlins
Jennifer Thomson
Mary Colleen Rogge
Julie Bunke
Kendra Unterbrink
Jacqueline Fannon
Cynthia Burman
Marcia F. Dubin
Sarah Beaudry
Stephanie A. Tirado
Janet Halliday
Pamela Julian
Stephanie, M. Lane
Jennifer L. Stanford
Patricia Arsenault
Pamela Sigel
Miriam Brooks
Ladda Douangvila
Rubine Gevorgyan
Fatima Ranjbaran
Bryn Smith
Carly Ohmart
Samantha Ly
Margot C. Quinn
Sara Temiyasathit
Jacquelyn Do
Desiree Tobin
Jennifer Langdon
Marcia Werner Bayer
Amanda O’Malley
Erin Orvis
Mandy Murphy
Ann Greenberg
Margaret Iraola
Leandro C. Maranan
Ammy Malinay
Candice P. Edillo
Ann Ostrander
Stephanie Wasmiller
Wendy Drewes
Dipti Patel
Jackie M White
Alison Hallam
Benjamin J Spooner
Linda M Hollenweger
Holly Little
Tiffany Little
Nona A Eskelson
Yvonne Taul
Caroline Rodgers
Jennifer Isaacs
Viktoria Bulkley
Renee Kaneshiro
Bonnie J. Kirby
Nhi N. Tran
Catherine Jahrsdorfer
Reem Yunis
Jhina Patro
Antonia Vega
Hugo Bloise-Adames
Santa Jimenez
Nicole Saint Vrestil
Reyna Bhandari
Danielle Schade
Roxanne Yost
Paula Beardsley
Denise Fine
Jana Tancredi
Patricia Arakelian
Susan Mathus
Deborah O’Neill
Joy Burkhardt
Suellen Hosino
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Tri Tran
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Natalie Spitzer
Casey Riedberger
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Kirsten J. Quiles
Carrie Drum
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Amy Ollinger
Elizabeth Capasso-Gulve
Alaine Melanie Loehr
Marlowe Mosley
Shirin Heydari
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Edgar Karanjah
Wanda C. Marfori
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Heidi Wilson
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Estelle Montpetit
Katia Drouin
Christine Bergeron
Christine Shelley
Christine Masson
Sandy Carr
Catherine Bone
Ermina Moga
Janetta Kourzenkova
Olga Walter
Norma Hogg
Suzanne Welsh
Mohammed Hussain
Olugbenga Bello
Ishba Syed
Khrystyna Kushniriuk
Judy Otis
Rebecca Otis
Michelle M Seib
Sandra M Rivest
Rosa Sandonato
Jackie Chow
Andrew Starovoytov
Naomi Uchida
Ngaire Meadows
Nadia Asif
Suzana Tavares
Bev Bozek
Maria Shier
Lori-Ann Larmand
Amir Janmohamed
Brenda Hart
Jane Marucci
Sharon Tai
Sonya Brons
Chris Beck
Glenda Wong
Krystal Etherington
Thippeekaa Arumairajah
Maria Aprile
Sara Karlsson
Susan Webber
Chantale Mercure
Nancy Aedy
Fran Farquharson
Anam Siddiqui
Myrthes Emy Takiuti
Leonardo Pizzol Caetano
Aline Peixoto Deiro
Alice Manica Muller
Maria Antonieta Pereira de Moraes
Bruna Maria Ascoli
Sílvia Zottis Poletti
Sandra S. Zier
Vilmar Veiga
Diego Franca da Cunha
Guilherme G Rucatti
Fernanda Igansi
Mauren P Haeffner
Viviane Almeida
Gabriela Sanchez de Souza
Mayana Almeida
Viviane dos Santos
Natalia S Oliveira
Bruna Edilena Paulino Azevedo
Marco Bizzaro Santos
Amanda Germann
Vitor Gomes
Rosa Homem
Ellen Magedanz
Rosane Laimer
Alexandre Tognon
Roberta P Santos
Mariana Yumi Okada
Ana Paula Batista
Aline Nogueira Rabaça
Larissa Miranda Trama
Talita Silva
Camila Thais de Souza Ormundo
Carla Vicente
Caroline Pinheiro
Daniele Komar
Olga Walesiak
Katarzyna Malinowska
Jakub Maksym
Karolina Wojtera
Anna Fojt
Ewa Szczerba
Marta Swiderek
Ewelina Wojtala
Jaroslaw Karwowski
Andrzej Łabyk
Agnieszka Szramowska
Olga Zdończyk
Joanna Jaroch
Adam Kolodziej
Marta Marcinkiewicz-Siemion
Olga Bockeria
Zalina Kudzoeva
Nodira Aripova
Ivan A. Naryshkin
Alena Kuleshova
Dastan Malaev
Irina Subbotina
Victoria Gumerova
Olga B. Nikolaeva
Virginia Fernández-Figares, Pharm
Moisés Blanco-Calvo
Encarnación Alonso-Álvarez
Paula García-González
Jose Seijas Amigo
Ana Fernández Martínez
Begoña Igual
M. Quintana Giner
A.I. Romero Aniorte
JM. Rivera Caravaca
Olga Cañavate
Sonia Guerrero
Silvia Riera
Maria Lasala
Maria Lorenzo
Olga Sobrino
Alexandra Vazquez
Haojian Dong
Peiyu He
Chunli Xia
Junqing Yang
Qi Zhong
Yanmeng Tian
Dongze Li
Xiaomei Li
Xiang Ma
Zixiang Yu
Qian Zhao
Chunguang Li
Lei Zhang
Yu Zhao
Bolin Zhu
Mulei Chen
Hongjie Chi
Yang Wang
Jing Zhang
Rui Jing
Jingjing Liu
Qiang Zhou
Chang Xu
Zhuxi Li
Junhua Li
Luyang Xiong
Dan Gao
Dengke Jiang
Ran Leng
Xutong Wang
Qianqian Yuan
Lili Zhang
Ziliang Bai
Jianhua Li
Jie Qi
Fei Wang
Haitao Wang
Bin Yang
Zhou Yue
Zhulin Zhang
Yumei Dong
Jiajia Mao
Bin Zhang
Xiuhong Li
Xiaowei Yao
Nier Zhong
Ning Zhou
Yaping Huang
Panpan Zhou
Wei Su
Yu Kunwu
Yudong Peng
Xin Su
Chen Wang
Yunhai Zhao
Yaming Geng
Yanfu Wang
Jing-yao Fan
Si-ting Feng
Xiao Wang
Yan Yan
Hui-min Zhang
Lingping Chi
Fang Liu
Han Chen
Jun Jiang
Huajun Li
Yechen Han
Lihong Xu
Gang Chen
Rongrong Hu
Francesca Pietrucci
Anna Di Donato
Francesca Pezzetta
Valentina Casali
Chiara Attanasio
Gianpiero Leone
Francesco Pisano
Cristina Bare
Fabio Fimiani
Alberto Barioli
Federica Ramani
Fabrizio Rolfo
Cecilia Goletto
Francesca De Micco
Stefano Di Marco
Martina Tricoli
Massimo Villella
Sik-Yin V Tan
Winnie C Sia
Audrey W Leong
Li Hai Yan
Nasrul Ismail
Min Tun Kyaw
Deborah Yip
Dorit Grahl
Franziska Guenther
Kerstin Bonin
Ina Wenzelburger
Susanne Gruensfelder
Jan-Malte Sinning
Marcel Weber
Nikos Werner
Gudrun Steinmaurer
Max-Paul Winter
Tijana, Andric
Maximilian, Tscharre
Claudia, Wegmayrc
Bernhard, Jäger
Florian, Egger
Judit Sebo
Zoltan Davidovits
Laszlone Matics
Gergely Ágoston
Gabor Dekany
Andrea Bartykowszki
Agnes Jakal
Jelena Djokic
Ana D. Djordjevic-Dikic
Vojislav L. Giga
Jelena J. Stepanovic
Lazar Velicki
Ljiljana Pupic
Stefan M. Simović
Miroslav Stevo Martinovic
Gordana Stevanovic
Milan Dobric
Sonja Salinger Martinovic
Dragana Stanojevic
Ramon de Jesús-Pérez
María Fernanda Canales Brassetti
Diego Adrián Vences Anaya
María Pérez García
Isabel Estela Carvajal Juarez
Magdalena Madero Rovalo
Sau Lee
Prince Thomas
Melissa D Chaplin
Jeanette K. Stansborough
Marilyn Black
Michelle M. Bonner
Kim F. Ireland
Clare Venn-Edmonds
Corine Thobois
Emilie Tachot
Christophe Laure
Christel Vassaliere
Helene Abergel
Axelle Fuentes
Ludivine Eliahou
Olivier Dubourg
Pierre Michaud
Sarah Hadjih
Patricia Brito
Charles Cornet
Jeremy Rautureau
Agne Juceviciene
Irma Kalibataite-Rutkauskiene
Laura Keinaite
Monika Laukyte
Gelmina Mikolaitiene
Akvile Smigelskaite
Ilona Tamasauskiene
Agne Urboniene
Ilse Bouwhuis
Lia Nijmeijer
Jeannette, J. M. Schoep
Elisabeth, M. Janzen
Sandra Ahoud
Mafalda Selas
Filipa Silva
Cláudia Freixo
Inês Zimbarra Cabrita
Andreia Rocha
Francisca Patuleia Figueiras
Andreia Coelho
Marta Capinha
Maria Inês Caetano
Susana Silva
Veronica Tinnirello
Matías Nicolás Mungo
Marina Garcia
Valeria Godoy
Maria Victoria Actis
Graciela Scaro
Liz Low
Jayne Scales
Kirsty Abercrombie
Leah Howell
Cathrine Patten
Christina Björklund
Maria Andreasson
Marie Essermark
Liselotte Persson
Or Harel
Margalit Bentzvi
Ludmila Helmer
Ikuko Ueda
Jun Fujita
Akemi Furukawa
Kanae Hirase
Toshiyuki Nagai
Fumiyuki Otsuka
Shintaro Nakano
Valerie Robesyn
Yi-Hsuan Yang
Noloyiso Mtana
Adriana Anesini
Simona Maspoli
Manuela Mombelli
Ahmed Talaat
Monica Rosca
Carmen C. Beladan
Sarah Zahrani
Marco Antonio Monsalve Davila
Supatchara Khwakhong
Anong Chaiyasri
Warangkana Mekara
Supap Kulthawong
Anong Amaritakomol
Pachara Panpunuan
Noor Syamira Mokhtar
Nor Asiah Basri
Irni Yusnida
Humayrah Hashim
Jeffrey Berger
David Williams
Robert Harrington
Lixin Jiang
Renato D. Lopes
C. Noel Bairey Merz
William Weintraub
Erick Donato Morales Rodríguez
Pal Maurovich-Horvat
Poonam Sonawane
Rajesh Francis
Ramakrishnan T.
Soundarya Nayak
Stephanie C Boer
Yves Rosenberg
Christian Hamm
Malte Helm
Eric Peterson
Christie Ballantyne
Karen Calfas
Mary Ann Champagne
Jerome Fleg
Peter A. McCullough
Philippe Menasche
Michael Davidson
Stephen Fremes
Robert Guyton
Michael Mack
Fred Mohr
Anupama Rao
Joe Sabik
Oz Shapira
David Taggart
James Tatoulis
Jim Blankenship
Sorin Brener
Chris Buller
Antonio Colombo
Bernard de Bruyne
Dean Kereiakes
Thierry Lefevre
Jeffrey Moses
Ken Mahaffey
Salvador Cruz-Flores
Nicholas Danchin
Eli Feen
Mario J. Garcia
Paul Hauptman
Abhay A. Laddu
Eugene Passamani
Ileana L. Pina
Maarten Simoons
Hicham Skali
Kristian Thygesen
David Waters
Patricia Endsley
Gerard Esposito
Jeffrey Kanters
John Pownall
Dimitrios Stournaras
Matthias Friedrich
Rory Hachamovitch
Dana Oliver
Frank Harrell
Jeffrey Blume
Kerry Lee
Iftikhar Kullo
Bruce McManus
Kristin Newby
David Cohen
Raffaele Bugiardini
Deirdre Mattina
Ziad Ali
Roy Mathew
Lawrence Friedman
Jeffrey Anderson
Jessica Berg
David DeMets
C. Michael Gibson
Gervasio Lamas
Nicole Deming
Jonathan Himmelfarb
Pamela Ouyang
Pamela Woodard
Samuel Nwosu
Ruth Kirby
Neal Jeffries
Jean E. Denaro
Stephanie Boumakis
Kevin Chan
Gia Cobb
Aira Contreras
Diana Cukali
Stephanie Ferket
Andre Gabriel
Antonietta Hansen
Arline Roberts
Michelle Chang
Sharder Islam
Graceanne Wayser
Solomon Yakubov
Michelle Yee
Caroline Callison
Isabelle Hogan
Albertina Qelaj
Charlotte Pirro
Kerrie Van Loo
Brianna Wisniewski
Margaret Gilsenan
Bevin Lang
Samaa Mohamed
Shari Esquenazi-Karonika
Patenne D. Mathews
Anna Naumova
Jihyun Lyo
Vincent Setang
Mark Xavier
Kevin Anstrom
Khaula Baloch
Janet Blount
Patricia Cowper
Linda Davidson-Ray
Laura Drew
Tina Harding
J David Knight
Diane Minshall Liu
Betsy O’Neal
Thomas Redick
Philip Jones
Karen Nugent
Grace Jingyan Wang
Abhinav Goyal
Holly Hetrick
Sean W. Hayes
John D. Friedman
R. James Gerlach
Mark Hyun
Romalisa Miranda-Peats
Piotr Slomka
Louise Thomson
Francois Pierre Mongeon
Steven Michael
Judy Hung
Xin Zeng
Jane Eckstein
Bandula Guruge
Mary Streif
Maria A. Alfonso
Maria P. Corral
Javier J. Garcia
Jennifer Horst
Ivana Jankovic
Maayan Konigstein
Mitchel B. Lustre
Yolayfi Peralta
Raquel Sanchez
Reza Arsanjani
Kimberly Elmore
Millie Gomez
Niree Hindoyan
Rine Nakanishi
M. Barbara Srichai-Parsia
Eunice Yeoh
Tricia Youn
Francesca Bianchini
Martina Ceseri
Andrea Lorimer
Marco Magnoni
Francesco Orso
Laura Sarti
Lilian Mazza Barbosa
Tauane Bello Duarte
Tamara Colaiácovo Soares
Julia de Aveiro Morata
Pedro Carvalho
Natalia de Carvalho Maffei
Flávia Egydio
Anelise Kawakami
Janaina Oliveira
Elissa Restelli Piloto
Jaqueline Pozzibon
Diane Camara
Neamat Mowafy
Caroline Spindler
Hao Dai
Fang Feng
Jia Li
Li Li
Jiamin Liu
Qiulan Xie
Haibo Zhang
Jianxin Zhang
Lihua Zhang
Liping Zhang
Ning Zhang
Hui Zhong
Claudia Escobar
Maria Eugenia Martin
Andrea Pascual
Paloma Moraga
Victoria Hernandez
Maria Posada
Sara Fernandez
José Luis Narro Villanueva
Rafael Selgas
Ann Luyten
Nevena Garcevic
Jelena Stojkovic
Asker Ahmed
Richa Bhatt
Nitika Chadha
Vijay Kumar
Sadath Lubna
Pushpa Naik
Shruti Pandey
Karthik Ramasamy
Mohammed Saleem
Pratiksha Sharma
Hemalata Siddara
Footnotes
Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01471522
Non-Author Collaborators: A list of non-author collaborators for indexing in PubMed is included in the Appendix.
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