title: Diagnostic value of image processing in myocardial scintigraphy.
abstract: The diagnostic value of stress myocardial analog scintigrams, and of five image-processing methods, was assessed by a decisional analysis in 96 patients undergoing coronary arteriography. The methods involved digitalization, nine-point binomial smoothing, background subtraction by linear interpolation, stationary filtering, and a combination of them. The difference between after-test probabilities of having the disease with a positive or a negative examination provided a discriminant index for different prevalences of the disease. Though the processing methods failed to improve the detection of a circumflex stenosis, the stationary filter significantly increased the diagnostic value for the detection of stenosis in a left anterior descending artery for a large range of prevalence, and in a right coronary artery at high prevalence. Thus, the filter seemed to provide a useful tool for enhancing the diagnostic value of myocardial scintigraphy.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005080:Exercise Test; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011868:Radioisotopes; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging / Q000379:methods; D013793:Thallium
chemical_list: D011868:Radioisotopes; D013793:Thallium