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Exercise treadmill testing with electrocardiogram (ETT) and exercise testing with thallium scanning are both used for diagnosis and risk stratification of coronary artery disease -- but is the more expensive thallium test better? This study focused on 1,137 patients referred for exercise testing with thallium single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) at a teaching hospital in France. Indications for nuclear stress testing included typical chest pain (62 percent), atypical chest pain (22 percent), or suspected silent ischemia (16 percent); only 31 percent of the patients had suffered previous myocardial infarctions or had undergone coronary artery bypass grafts or angioplasties.
During an average follow-up period of 6 years, 8 percen…