Thallium myocardial scanning in the emergency department evaluation of chest pain.

Chest pain is a common complaint of patients seen in the emergency department. The causes are legion, and range from the non-life threatening to the potentially catastrophic. Thallium heart scanning was done prospectively in 20 patients with a "classic" history for myocardial infarction (eight patients) or atypical chest pain and/or associated symptoms plus an abnormal ECG (12 patients) to discern a subset of patients from whom thallium scintography may be indicated in the emergency department. Although further investigation is needed, our preliminary study suggests that myocardial scanning with thallium can be a safe, fairly rapid, and useful objective parameter in the emergency department detection of suspected myocardial infarction, and in differential diagnosis of chest pain when other data such as the history, physical examination, ECG, or enzymes are inconclusive.