EFFECT OF A DELAY IN COMMENCING IMAGING ON THE ABILITY TO DETECT TRANSIENT THALLIUM DEFECTS

  • 1 January 1985
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 26  (8) , 880-883
Abstract
Patients (60), 42 with coronary disease and 18 normals, were studied to assess the impact of a delay following exercise in commencing Tl imaging on the sensitivity for detecting ischemic transient defects. Three sets of images were obtained beginning 2 min, 18 min and 2 h after exercise. Each patient''s images were separated into 2 pairs of studies for analysis: 2 min-2 h and 18 min-2 h. Of the 42 patients with coronary disease, a greater number had transient defects detected on the 2 min-2 h compared with the 18 min-2 h study (22 compared with 14, P < 0.05). False positives were not increased by earlier imaging. A modest (18 min) delay obtaining the 1st set of images apparently causes a significant reduction in the ability to detect transient Tl defects, and imaging should begin several minutes after exercise.