New diagnostic evidence on the T wave map indicating involved coronary artery in patients with angina pectoris.

To define the clinical significance of T wave map changes in patients with angina at rest, body surface isopotential T distributions were obtained in 48 patients with single-vessel disease (left anterior descending artery, 34; right coronary artery, eight; left circumflex artery, six) documented angiographically and were compared with those in 120 healthy subjects and those in 19 patients with left ventricular overload whose electrocardiograms showed negative T waves accompanied by an increase in R wave amplitude in left precordial leads. The T wave map abnormalities were observed in 24 of 48 patients (50%) with angina and were classified into three types: (1) type I (18 patients, 37.5%) was characterized by a segmental negative potential in the positive area located at the left thorax and the minimum at the peak of T wave positioned in the upper portion of the left anterior chest, (2) type II (three patients, 6.3%) was characterized by a negative potential with a minimum in the inferior thorax and an ind...