[Overall and regional sensitivity of myocardial thallium-201 scintigraphy compared with the number and location of coronary lesions and the presence of previous myocardial infarction].

An evaluation is presented of (1) the overall sensitivity and specificity of 201Tl myocardial scintigraphy in 230 patients with suspected coronary artery disease and (2) the effects of the number and location of the diseased vessels, and the presence of previous infarction, on regional sensitivity in 151 patients. Overall sensitivity was 91% (80%, 95%, 97%) in patients with 1, 2 or 3 vessels respectively. Overall specificity was 81% or 89% if 7 patients with infarction and normal coronaries were excluded. In 80% of patients with one diseased vessel, in 41% of patients with 2 diseased vessels, and in only 24% with 3 diseased vessels were all lesions detected. 201Tl scintigraphy detected 52% of circumflex lesions as compared to 75% of right coronary and 74% of left anterior descending lesions. Of the 151 patients with proven coronary disease, 75 had a previous infarction. Overall and regional 201Tl sensitivity were greater (but not significantly) in this subgroup as compared to patients without myocardial infarction.