Comparison of the prognostic value of qualitative versus quantitative stress tomographic perfusion imaging

This study compared qualitative assessment of exercise thallium imaging to quantitative assessment in predicting outcome in 713 patients with 78% prev alence of coronary artery disease by coronary angiography; during a mean fo llow-up of 52 months, there were 106 hard cardiac events (death or nonfatal myocardial infarction). The qualitative method provided important prognost ic information; however, unlike the quantitative technique, less patients w ere assigned to either the low- or high-risk group and proportionally more patients into the intermediate-risk group, which may limit the clinical use fulness of the technique.