• Henrik Gutte, Jann Mortensen, Claus Verner Jensen, Peter von der Recke, Claus Leth Petersen, Ulrik Sloth Kristoffersen, and Andreas Kjaer.
• Department of Clinical Physiology, Nuclear Medicine and PET, Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark. henrik.gutte@rh.regionh.dk
• Nucl Med Commun. 2010 Jan 1;31(1):82-6.

PurposePlanar ventilation/perfusion (V/Q) scintigraphy is currently the standard method for the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism (PE) in most nuclear medicine centers. However, recent studies have shown a superior sensitivity and specificity when applying V/Q single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) in diagnosing PE. This study evaluated the diagnostic performance of three-dimensional V/Q SPECT in comparison with planar V/Q scintigraphy.Materials And MethodsConsecutive patients suspected of acute PE from June 2006 to February 2008 were referred to the Department of Nuclear Medicine at Frederiksberg Hospital, Denmark to a V/Q SPECT, as the first-line imaging procedure. Patients with positive D-dimer (>0.5 mg/l) or after clinical assessment with a Wells score of more than 2 were included and had a V/Q SPECT, low-dose CT, planar V/Q scintigraphy, and pulmonary multidetector computer tomography angiography performed the same day. Ventilation studies were performed using Kr. Patient follow-up was at least 6 months.ResultsA total of 36 patient studies were available for analysis, of which 11 (31%) had PE. V/Q SPECT had a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 87%. Planar V/Q scintigraphy had a sensitivity of 64% and a specificity of 72%.ConclusionWe conclude that V/Q SPECT has a superior diagnostic performance compared with planar V/Q scintigraphy and should be preferred when diagnosing PE.

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