Evaluation of a nine-lead Holter monitor for identifying and localizing ischemia and coronary artery disease detected by quantitative thallium-201 tomography.

We devised a nine-lead Holter monitor system with a lead-switching technique to record electrocardiograms from multiple sites in the anterior and the posterior or lateral chest. Leads CM1 to CM6, high lateral (HL), low lateral (LL), and low posterior chest (LB) were used. The sensitivity, specificity, and predictive accuracy of this system for identifying specific regions of myocardial ischemia and coronary artery disease were investigated in 130 patients with coronary artery disease. Anterolateral leads (CM4 to CM6, HL, and LL) showed high sensitivity for detecting anterior and lateral ischemia (69% to 100%) but low specificity (4% to 44%) compared with tomographic results. The specificity of these leads for identifying single-vessel disease was low (6% to 47%) although some leads showed high sensitivity (69% to 100%). In contrast, the LB lead exhibited high sensitivity and specificity for detecting inferior ischemia (70% and 95%, respectively) and right coronary artery (RCA) disease (74% and 93%, respectively). Consequently, ST depressions in the LB lead (anode) are specific for identifying inferior ischemia and RCA disease, whereas those in the anterior and lateral chest leads do not identify the ischemic region or the obstructed coronary artery.