[Thallium 201 myocardial scintigraphy and left branch block. Comparative value of exercise test and dipyridamole...

Stress Thallium 201 myocardial scintigraphy in patients with left bundle branch block often shows reversible septal perfusion defects even in the absence of coronary artery disease. This phenomenon seems more common when the patients have tachycardia. With the working hypothesis that dipyridamole stress testing, which does not greatly increase the heart rate, would be more appropriate than exercise stress testing to unmask coronary artery disease in this condition, the authors compared the results of two Thallium 201 scintigraphies performed after exercise and then after dipyridamole under the same conditions three weeks later, in 67 patients with complete left bundle branch block. Scintigraphy showed one or more reversible perfusion defects in 64/67 patients after exercise but only 32/67 patients after dipyridamole (p < 0.001). There was poor uptake in the septal region in 59 patients (88%) after exercise and in 25 patients (37%) after dipyridamole (p < 0.001). The specificity was evaluated in 23 patients estimated to have no coronary artery disease. If only unequi vocal perfusion defects were considered, the specificity after dipyridamole was higher than that after exercise, increasing from: 35% to 83% for septal defects (p < 0.01); 65% to 96% for anterior wall defects (p < 0.05); 61% to 87% for inferior wall defects (p < 0.05); 57% to 91% for apical defects (p < 0.01); 17% to 83% overall (p < 0.001). Lower values but with a comparable difference were observed when all forms of hypofixation (even minimal) were taken into account.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)