Clinical utility of the exercise optically pumped magnetocardiographic stress test in young adults: an exploratory study

Background: To assess the clinical feasibility and safety of exercise magnetocardiographic stress test based on optically pumped magnetometers (OPMs). Methods: Subjects without previous cardiovascular disease were enrolled in this study. All subjects underwent exercise electrocardiographic stress test (EST) and both rest and stress OPM-based magnetocardiography (MCG). Results: A total of 26 healthy subjects finally enrolled in this study. None of the subjects reported chest pain, dyspnea or any other discomfort during the test. The mean interval between the completion of EST and the initiation of OPM-based MCG signal acquisition was 60.3 ± 8.4 s. One subject observed obvious deflection of magnetic field (Unstable-MCG group) during stress OPM-based MCG, whereas 25 subjects did not (Stable-MCG group). In Stable-MCG group, the rest and stress magnetocardiographic parameters were phenotypically similar (P > 0.05). Conclusion: We demonstrated an innovative diagnostic technology with broad potential application value for diagnosing myocardial ischemia and assessed its clinical feasibility and safety. This is a critical step toward making the examination widely used in clinical practice.