A simplified approach for evaluating multiple test outcomes and multiple disease states in relation to the exercise thallium-201 stress test in suspected coronary artery disease.
This study describes a simplified approach for the interpretation of electrocardiographic and thallium-201 imaging data derived from the same patient during exercise. The 383 patients in this study had also undergone selective coronary arteriography within 3 months of the exercise test. This matrix approach allows for multiple test outcomes (both tests positive, both negative, 1 test positive and 1 negative) and multiple disease states (no coronary artery disease vs 1-vessel vs multivessel coronary artery disease). Because this approach analyzes the results of 2 test outcomes simultaneously rather than serially, it also negates the lack of test independence, if such an effect is present. It is also demonstrated that ST-segment depression on the electrocardiogram and defects on initial thallium-201 images provide conditionally independent information regarding the presence of coronary artery disease in patients without prior myocardial infarction. In contrast, ST-segment depression on the electrocardiogram and redistribution on the delayed thallium-201 images may not provide totally independent information regarding the presence of exercise-induced ischemia in patients with or without myocardial infarction.
Department of Medicine, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville.
S G
SG
Pollock
D D
DD
Watson
R S
RS
Gibson
G A
GA
Beller
S
S
Kaul
D000368:Aged; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000175:diagnosis*; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005080:Exercise Test; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011336:Probability; D013794:Thallium Radioisotopes
D013794:Thallium Radioisotopes