Quantitative analysis of tomographic stress thallium-201 myocardial scintigrams: a multicenter trial

The accuracy of the previously developed and validated Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (CSMC) computer program for quantitative analysis of thallium-201 (201TI) stress myocardial tomograms was assessed in a multicenter trial consisting of 242 patients with coronary angiography and 76 with a low likelihood (LL) of coronary artery disease (CAD) involving various cameras, computers, and operators. The program utilized gender-matched normal limits developed from 35 LL patients at CSMC. The multicenter results as compared to those of 168 patients from CSMC were not significantly different with respect to the overall sensitivities (94% versus 95%) and specificities (44% versus 56%) for identification of CAD and normalcy rates which were determined in LL patients (82% for both) and with respect to identification of individual diseased arteries. The results indicate that our method for quantifying tomographic 201TI stress scintigrams utilizing standard normal limits can be applied at other institutions by different operators, using a variety of cameras and computers, with similar accuracy to that currently obtained at our institution.