Abstract
The application of cross-sectional echocardiography to the evaluation of patients with ischaemic heart diseases has been limited to certain specific situations, such as recognition of generalised ventricular dysfunction and regional wall motion abnormalities. Myocardial perfusion scintigraphy using thallium-201 has been used at rest and after exercise to display perfusion defects. Clinical, echocardiographic data and thallium-201 studies of 36 patients with chronic congestive heart failure and coronary artery disease were analysed to confirm the differential diagnosis of the myopathy of coronary artery disease. Thirty patients (85 per cent) had a history of one or more myocardial infarctions, 22 per cent cardiomegaly, 16 per cent mitral insufficiency and 30 per cent anginal pain. Echocardiographic studies showed global hypokinesia in 40 per cent of patients, aneurysmal dilatation of the left ventricle in 11 per cent, markedly reduced shortening fraction in 40 per cent and increased left ventricular systolic and diastolic dimensions in all the tested cases (100 per cent). All patients displayed perfusion defects, with reverse redistribution defects in 10 cases only (30 per cent) and extensive fixed defects in 26 cases (70 per cent). This study indicates that ischaemic cardiomyopathy is a distinct entity, since it results from multiple infarcts producing multifocal ventricular wall motion abnormalities with reduced left ventricular function.