[Reversible myocardial ischaemia or irreversible myocardial fibrosis? Differentiation by biphasic 201thallium scintigraphy (author's transl)].

The results of biphasic 201thallium (201Tl) scanning were compared with those of coronary arteriography, left ventricular angiogarphy and stress ECG in 56 patients with coronary artery disease and six with no evidence of heart disease. There were 104 201Tl defects, 50 of them reversible. The defects were always located in the area supplied by a critically stenotic coronary artery. Correlation of regional wall motion with 201Tl activity demonstrated that in all forms of abnormal wall motion there was either ischaemia or fibrosis. The resting LV angiogram thus does not make it possible to distinguish between myocardial ischaemia and fibrosis. Taking the LV angiogram as a standard, the rate of false-positive 201Tl scintigrams was 5%, that of false-negative ones 23%. The biphasic 201Tl scintigram was more sensitive than the stress ECG in detecting myocardial ischaemia. It furthermore made it possible to localize the ischaemic (or fibrotic) region within the LV and to estimate its size.