The cardiokymography exercise test compared to the thallium-201 perfusion exercise test in the diagnosis of coronary artery disease

Noninvasive Diagnosis of Coronary Artery Disease: A Comparison between Cardiokymographic and Electrocardiographic Stress Testing

“…Nine percent of CKG tracings could not be evaluated in our study (22 of 249), which is in the middle of the range reported for inadequate CKG tracings in the literature of 4–18% [10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 21, 22]. The proportion of type III tracings among the abnormal tracings was much higher in the present study than in other published studies [13, 17].…”

“…Presumably, this was the reason for the smaller interobserver variability in our study compared to other published studies [11, 17]. Additionally, and in contrast to most previously published studies [10, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17], the investigators in our study were completely blinded to patient data, other ECG or CKG findings and the results of coronary angiography. The results of our study thus confirm those of Weiner et al [13]and Gehring et al [17], who also found no significant difference in sensitivity and specificity between exercise ECG and CKG.…”

“…On the basis of encouraging results of earlier studies on the value of CKG [10, 11, 12], we decided to test the hypothesis that exercise CKG is superior to exercise ECG in the diagnosis of CAD. In particular, it may be expected that CKG, continuously performed during exercise, should have a higher sensitivity, since earlier studies from the 1980s [10, 11, 12, 13, 14]evaluated CKG tracings at end expiration after stress testing. The present study is the largest one to be published to date on the use of the new computerized CKG device.…”

“…Following the development of kinetocardiography by Eddleman et al [5]in the 1950s and the development of this technique to cardiokymography (CKG) by Vas and his team [6, 7, 8, 9]in the 1960s and 70s, exercise CKG was propagated as a method for noninvasive diagnosis of CAD in the 1980s [10, 11, 12, 13, 14]. The CKG system has been improved compared to the device used in earlier studies [10, 11, 12, 13, 14]and now allows curve analysis during the stress period.…”

“…The CKG system has been improved compared to the device used in earlier studies [10, 11, 12, 13, 14]and now allows curve analysis during the stress period. Three recent studies have demonstrated an improved diagnostic accuracy for combined ECG and CKG [15, 16, 17], but two of these studies investigated only small numbers of patients [15, 16].…”