Detection of Coronary Artery Disease in Women by Exercise THallium-201 Myocardial Scintigraphy

To determine the diagnostic value of planar exercise thallium scintigraphy (ExTS) for detecting coronary artery disease (CAD) in women, ExTS results were compared with the findings of coronary arteriography in 63 cases. The study was carried out retrospectively in 63 women ranging in age from 23 to 64 (mean 51±10). Among these, coronary arteries were found to be normal in 38 and CAD was diagnosed in 25. The ExTS showed exercise-induced or fixed defects in 5 cases with normal coronary arteries and in 24 cases with CAD. Thus the sensitivity of ExTS was found to be 96 %, specificity 87 %, positive predictive value 83 % and negative predictive value 97 %. It is concluded that ExTS has a clinically useful level of sensitivity and specificity for the detection of CAD in women.