New approach to quantitation of exercise thallium-201 scintigraphy before and after an intervention: application to define the impact of coronary angioplasty on regional myocardial perfusion

We have developed a new computer method designed to quantitate regional myocardial thallium-201 (TI-201) initial distribution, redistribution, and clearance rate. In addition, this computer method permits the generation of functional images to compare two thallium images in the same projection to one another. These functional images can be used to demonstrate the extent of redistribution and the extent of change in regional perfusion before and after an intervention. To validate and apply this new computer technique, exercise TI-201 myocardial images obtained before and 1 week after percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) were analyzed in 20 patients with isolated left anterior descending coronary artery disease. Significant improvement in initial TI-201 activity, expressed as a percentage of maximal myocardial activity, was present in the anterior (71.9 +/- 12.0 to 84.1 +/- 11.5%, p less than 0.001) and septal (66.7 +/- 15.4 to 75.2 +/- 11.0%, p less than 0.05) regions of the left ventricle 1 week after PTCA. This increase in relative anterior wall TI-201 uptake was associated with a significant reduction in the amount of TI-201 redistribution between initial and delayed postexercise images (14.7 +/- 14.6 to 3.0 +/- 13.2%, p less than 0.05) as well as an increase in TI-201 clearance rate (t 1/2 from 8.8 +/- 4.4 to 4.3 +/- 2.5 hours, p less than 0.001). Quantitative analysis of TI-201 scans demonstrated improvement in 14 of 20 patients following PTCA. Computer-derived functional difference images depicted diminution in the extent of ischemia as manifested by redistribution of TI-201