Thallium scintigraphy in the diagnosis of coronary artery disease

A retrospective analysis was performed in 371 patients who underwent stress thallium scintigraphy over a three-year period. The patient-group was highly selected. The majority had a normal or uninterpretable exercise EKG. The purpose was to assess the clinical value of thallium scintigraphy, and to determine the accuracy of the test compared with coronary arteriography for diagnosis of coronary artery disease in 108 of the patients who had undergone cardiac catheterization. For 79 patients the scintigraphic results were in complete accordance with the coronary arteriograms. Furthermore, critical review of the arteriograms showed discrete stenosis of less than 50% in another 12 of the patients with abnormal scans. This yields an overall diagnostic accuracy of 84%. The authors discuss some limitations of the method and possible causes of ''false'' perfusion defects. The results of the analysis are consistent with earlier reports, and emphasize thallium scintigraphy as a valuable diagnostic tool in coronary heart disease. 13 refs., 1 fig., 3 tabs