[Non-invasive detection of asymptomatic coronary disease]

The prevalence of silent ischemia is reported to be 1.5-2.5% in middle-aged men. We have calculated the incidence of silent ischemia in a low-risk population consisting of all Norwegian male pilots. During the period from January 1983 to May 1988 54 pathological exercise-ECG were found among 3,430 recordings made on 3,800 individuals. The risk estimate for coronary artery disease was calculated on the basis of clinical history and findings, exercise-ECG, tallium myocardial scintigraphy and measure of the ejection fraction by technetium scintigraphy by means of conditional probability analysis. 30 persons had a low probability estimate, whereas 24 had a high probability estimate. The findings show that non-invasive criteria for coronary artery disease are observed infrequently in a male low-risk population. In our material the annual incidence was 0.10%.