USEFULNESS OF EXERCISE TL-201 IMAGING IN EVALUATION OF LOW-RISK AND HIGH-RISK GROUPS IN CORONARY-ARTERY DISEASE PATIENTS WITH DISAPPEARANCEOF ANGINAL EPISODES BY ANTIANGINAL DRUG-THERAPY

Our objective was to clarify the management of patients with silent my ocardial ischemia (SMI) and documented coronary artery disease. We eva luated 222 such patients who did not develop anginal pain during exerc ise thallium-201 imaging (ST-TL). They were divided into low- and high -risk groups based on results of left ventriculographic findings at re st, ST-TL, and coronary angiography. The incidence of cardiac events w as 28/222 (13%) overall, being 9 of 110 (8%) in the low-risk patients, and 19 of 112 (17%) in the high-risk group. Kaplan-Meier survival ana lysis revealed a significant difference between the two groups (p = 0. 020). Analysis of the survival of the high-risk group revealed signifi cant differences between the patients with a negative and positive red istribution (p = 0.047), but such differences were not significant in the low-risk patients. Therefore, the classification of SMI patients i nto low- and high-risk categories was an appropriate strategy. ST-TL w as useful for identifying patients with myocardial ischemia and select ing those to receive coronary revascularization and/or drug therapy.