Optimized myocardial scintigraphy using SPECT and quantitative evaluation

Myocardial scintigraphy as a highly sensitive, non-invasive method diagnosis CHD forms the interface to invasive diagnosis procedures. A precise characterization of the method by itself as well as the possible gain of diagnostic information has to precede wide spread application. One problem exists in the determination of the specificity in a group of patients with a high prevalence of the disease. The introduction of quantitative parameters into the evaluation permits to critically analyze the criteria of decision by the receiver-operator characteristic and optimize sensitivity and specificity. The sensitivity was checked in 70 patients with confirmed CHD. The reference values for the quantitative parameters were derived from a group of patients with a low probability of CHD (< 3%). With this approach myocardial scintigraphy using SPECT and quantitative evaluation could be optimized for a sensitivity of 90% and a specificity of 93%. (orig.)