RESUMO
Forty-four patients with effort angina pectoris were evaluated with SUNY4001 (adenosine) thallium-201 (201Tl) myocardial scintigraphy to detect coronary artery disease. These patients had single-vessel disease (> or = AHA 90% stenosis) in either RCA or LAD. Adenosine was infused at the rate of 120 or 140 microg/kg/min for six minutes. 111 MBq of 201Tl was injected after three minutes of the start of the infusion. The early and delayed images were obtained by SPECT imaging. The sensitivity was 94.7% at 120 microg/kg/min and 84.2% at 140 microg/kg/min. Adenosine 201Tl myocardial scintigraphy showed high accuracy for detecting significant coronary artery disease. Adverse reactions occurred in 77.3% of the patients. Regarding the rates of the adverse reactions, there was no significant difference between 120 and 140 microg/kg/min. Major adverse reactions were Chest pain/discomfort (52.3%) and Flushing/Feeling of warmth (27.3%). No serious complication was observed at any infusion rate. Most of adverse reactions disappeared sortly. Only two patients required treatment for moderate chest pain, which, however, disappeared in several minutes. One of the treatments was merely the termination of adenosine infusion, and the other was sublingual spray of nitroglycerin. Adenosine infusion caused slight decrease in blood pressure and increase in heart rate. The hemodynamic changes resolved within several minutes after the adenosine infusion. Decrease in systolic blood pressure of more than 20 mmHg from the base level occurred in 26.1% and 52.4% at 120 and 140 microg/kg/min infusion rate respectively. Therefore, the adenosine infusion at 120 microg/kg/min should be considered safe and useful for the diagnosis of coronary artery disease by pharmacologic stress imaging.