Serial right ventricle thallium-201 imaging after exercise: relation to anatomy of the right coronary artery.

The relation of the appearance of the right ventricle on serium thallium-201 myocardial imaging to coronary artery anatomy was examined in 88 consecutive patients undergoing exercise thallium-201 testing and coronary angiography for the evaluation of chest pain. Transient defects in the right ventricle were found in 8 patients. All had high grade (greater than or equal to 90%) stenosis of the proximal right coronary artery. Nonvisualization of right ventricular (RV) activity occurred in 10 patients. Nine of the 10 (90%) had significant (greater than or equal to 50% stenosis) disease of the proximal right coronary artery and 7 (70%) had high grade stenosis. The right ventricle appeared normal in 70 patients. Twenty-nine (41%) of these patients had significant proximal right coronary artery disease. Right ventricular appearance was not affected by the presence or absence of disease of the left anterior descending or left circumflex artery or by the appearance of the left ventricle. Thus, with serial RV thallium-201 myocardial imaging after exercise, we found that (1) RV transient defects suggest the presence of high grade proximal right coronary artery stenosis, (2) non-visualization of RV activity also predicts significant proximal right coronary disease, and (3) the right ventricle frequently appears normal despite proximal right coronary artery disease and therefore this finding does not exclude such disease.