Pretransplantation dipyridamole Tl-201 scan screens for ischemia in diabetics

Myocardial infarction and death following organ transplantation in patients with type 1 diabetes occurs frequently (9% - 11%). Treadmill stress Tl-201 testing in this group of patients is unsatisfactory due to the low levels of stress obtained. For this reason the authors prospectively evaluated the efficacy of oral dipyridamole thallium scintigraphy (ODTS) (300 mg) to screen for ischemia. The thallium scans were interpreted blindly by consensus reading. Coronary angiograms (CA) were also read blindly using 70% cross-sectional narrowing at the criterion for a significant lesion. Thirty patients underwent both CA and ODTS