Evaluation of patients with ischemic heart disease by thallium-201 myocardial imaging

Abstract

Thallium-201 myocardial imaging at rest and during exercise has found wide application in the evaluation of patients with suspected ischemic heart disease. Although the reported sensitivity of this technique is approximately 80% and the specificity 90%, the actual sensitivity and specificity are likely to be considerably higher. Only by careful attention to improvements in technical factors and in our ability to determine whether myocardial ischemia is present at rest or during exercise in patients being evaluated in the catheterization laboratory by arteriography will we be able to define the true sensitivity and specificity of this or other new noninvasive techniques.