Myocardial Scintigraphy and Subsequent Coronary Angiography in Patients with Exercise-Induced Myocardial Ischemia Affecting ≥10 % of the Left Ventricle

At the time of the study, coronary artery disease is a leading cause of death and disability worldwide. This study aimed to assess whether stenosis requiring intervention could be identified through coronary angiography, and to examine the correlation between affected coronary arteries and territories indicated by myocardial scintigraphy. Coronary angiography was typically performed when ≥10 % of the left ventricular perfusion was affected. Data was collected from 71 patients who had significant stenosis affecting ≥10 % of the left ventricle and underwent a follow-up coronary angiography. The myocardial scintigraphy included both stress and a rest phase to determine whether perfusion defects were attributable to irreversible fibrosis or reversible ischemia. Results showed that myocardial scintigraphy was a well-established method with an 83 % positive predictive value with a standard deviation of ±5 % and a 95 % confidence interval [0,1166 - 0,3548], (P<0,05) for detecting significant stenosis. However, the method tends to erroneously localize the affected coronary territory in 44 % of cases. Since the 95 % confidence interval does include the value 1 [0,8582 - 1,4192], (P>0,05), this indicates that the result was not significant. The study supported myocardial scintigraphy as a reliable method for detecting significant stenoses. However, the method may enhance its diagnostic value för the affected coronary territory. The results were justifying its use over the risks of coronary angiography. Further studies are needed to confirm the result for affected territories with statistically certainty.