Toru Kobayashi

Revaluation of the vectorcardiographic criteria in cases of myocardial infarction: A comparative study of the vectorcardiogram, the left ventriculogram and the scintigram

The results of vectorcardiograms were compared with those of the left ventriculograms and scintigrams with thallium-201 in cases of myocardial infarction to confirm the vectorcardiographic criteria of the present authors. The percentage of agreement between the VCG and scintigram was 82.5% and higher than the percentage of agreement between the VCG and the left ventriculogram. The percentage of disagreement between the negative finding in the VCG and the positive finding in the scintigram was 5.1% and consequently, a close relation was found between the VCG and scintigram. However, as the possibility of infarction was high in cases in which the scintigram finding was positive, the vectorcardiographic criteria in cases in which the VCG findings were negative were rechecked and partially corrected. Consequently the percentage of negative findings were decreased to 3.2%. Our next step was to perform the following prospective study which confirmed that the disagreement found in the corrected criteria (1.0%) was in fact less than what had been observed in the initial criteria (5.0%). Accordingly, it can be concluded that the corrected vectorcardiographic criteria in myocardial infarction may be the more reliable and useful in determining the location of the infarcted area.