Thallium-201 scintigraphy after surgical repair of hemodynamically significant primary coronary artery anomalies.

Nine patients with hemodynamically significant congenital coronary artery anomalies underwent surgical repair at our institution during the period 1960 to 1979. Four received diagnoses of anomalous left coronary artery arising from the pulmonary artery, while five patients had coronary artery fistulae. Stress 201Tl scintigraphy was performed on these patients 0.5 to 18 years after surgical correction as a means of assessing the adequacy of myocardial perfusion. No perfusion defects were visualized on any of the thallium studies. The surgical procedure used did not appear to influence the results of 201Tl stress imaging. Thus, these nine patients with surgically corrected primary coronary artery anomalies had no evidence of ischemia as assessed by stress thallium scintigraphy. Serial preoperative and postoperative thallium studies are now indicated to determine the role of this procedure in the management of hemodynamically significant congenital coronary artery anomalies.