Thallium-201 Myocardial scintigraphy: quantification and its image processing.

Abstract

Eighty patients with coronary artery disease and 32 non-coronary patients were studied with the following results: 1) Sensitivity of exercise electrocardiography was 66% with coronary stenosis > 50% and 70% with stenosis < 75%. Specificity of this tet was 72%. 2) Sensitivity of the thallium-201 (Tl-201) myocardial perfusion imaging was 77% with coronary stenosis < 50% and 80% with stenosis < 75%, and specificity was 80% and 96% with and without inclusion of cardiomyopathy and myocarditis, respectively. 3) Evaluation of exercise increments of Tl-201 fractional myocardial uptake and tomographic imaging using a 7-pinhole collimator further improve the sensitivity of myocardial perfusion scintigraphy.