Exercise SPECT versus Exercise ECG Testing for Diagnosis of Coronary Artery Disease and Identification of Extensive Coronary Artery Disease in Women with Normal Rest ECG

Previous studies regarding the elinical utility of radionuclide myocardial perfusion scintigraphy in the noninvasive detection of coronary artery disease (CAD) and identification of high risk patients with three-vessel CAD have been performed predominantly in men and also with inclusion of patients with abnormal rest ECG that might have biased the results in favor of exercise perfusion imaging. Thus, we studied ıss women with normal baseline ECG who underwent exercise SPECT thallium imaging and coronary angiography. 45 patients had no CAD; 62 had one-vessel disease; 39 had two-vessel disease; and 42 had three-vessel CAD (3V CAD). Sensitivity of SPECT and exercise ECG w as 82% and 52%, respectively (pKeywords: Coronary artery disease, electrocardiography, SPECT.