Prevalence and prognostic significance of exercise-induced silent myocardial ischemia detected by thallium scintigraphy and electrocardiography in asymptomatic volunteers.

Although a silent ischemic electrocardiographic response to treadmill exercise in clinically healthy populations is associated with an increased likelihood of future coronary events (i.e., angina pectoris, myocardial infarction, or cardiac death), such a response has a low predictive value for future events because of the low prevalence of disease in asymptomatic populations. To examine whether detection of reduced regional perfusion by thallium scintigraphy improved the predictive value of exercise-induced ST segment depression, we performed maximal treadmill exercise electrocardiography (ECG) and thallium scintigraphy (201Tl) in 407 asymptomatic volunteers 40-96 years of age (mean = 60) from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study on Aging. The prevalence of exercise-induced silent ischemia, defined by concordant ST segment depression and a thallium perfusion defect, increased more than sevenfold from 2% in the fifth and sixth decades to 15% in the ninth decade. Over a mean follow-up period of 4.6 years, cardi...