A 79-year-old female is referred for exercise SPECT MPI to evaluate exertional chest pain. She has a history of hypertension and morbid obesity. She reports poor exercise tolerance. She achieves 4 minutes on a Bruce protocol and 82% of her maximum age-predicted heart rate. Her treadmill speed is decreased until she is walking at a slow pace, and she is injected with regadenoson.
Which of the following is true regarding a combined exercise-vasodilator stress protocol?
A. Low-level exercise should be continued for optimal diagnostic accuracy.
B. There is an increased risk of ventricular arrhythmias
C. Side effects are lower compared with regadenoson stress alone
D. The majority of patients have better image quality under a combined stress protocol