REPOLARIZATION PATTERN OF BODY-SURFACE POTENTIAL MAPS (BSPM) IN CORONARY-ARTERY DISEASE

The aim of our study was to assess if repolarization BSPM were able to evaluate the site, size and severity of chronic ischaemic damages and if BSPM were in any way related to the regional attenuation of myocar dial contractility or to the site of coronary artery occlusion. The BS PM were obtained from 69 patients suffering from coronary artery disea se confirmed by coronarography, with at least 75 % occlusion of at lea st one coronary artery. According to the site of single occlusion, or a combination of the sites of multiple occlusions, the patients were d ivided into 6 subgroups. According to the region of attenuated kinetic s the same group of 69 patients was also divided into other 6 subgroup s. As in the polarity distribution there was only a limited accordance in BSPM with coronarographic and echocardiographic findings, in the l ocalization of extreme values there were very important specific chang es in patients with normal kinetics as determined by both contrast ven triculography and two-dimensional echocardiography. The repolarization maps can distinguish patients with coronary artery disease and normal echocardiography from healthy persons with a sensitivity of 85 % and a specificity of 65 % in the case of the isoareal map from the ST segm ent (RIAM) and 90 % and 85 %, respectively, in the case of the isointe gral map from the whole ST-T segments (RIIM).