European journal of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging
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Eur. J. Nucl. Med. Mol. Imaging · Aug 2009
Practice GuidelineEANM guidelines for ventilation/perfusion scintigraphy : Part 1. Pulmonary imaging with ventilation/perfusion single photon emission tomography.
Pulmonary embolism (PE) can only be diagnosed with imaging techniques, which in practice is performed using ventilation/perfusion scintigraphy (V/P(SCAN)) or multidetector computed tomography of the pulmonary arteries (MDCT). The epidemiology, natural history, pathophysiology and clinical presentation of PE are briefly reviewed. The primary objective of Part 1 of the Task Group's report was to develop a methodological approach to and interpretation criteria for PE. ⋯ Pitfalls in V/P(SCAN) interpretation are considered. V/P(SPECT) is strongly preferred to V/P(PLANAR) as the former permits the accurate diagnosis of PE even in the presence of comorbid diseases such as COPD and pneumonia. Technegas is preferred to DTPA in patients with COPD.
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Eur. J. Nucl. Med. Mol. Imaging · Aug 2009
Prognostic significance of stress myocardial gated SPECT among Japanese patients referred for coronary angiography: A study of data from the J-ACCESS database.
The J-ACCESS [Japanese investigation of prognosis based on gated single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT)] study found that quantitative gated myocardial SPECT (QGS) is valuable for predicting the prognosis of Japanese patients with known or suspected ischaemic heart disease. The present study evaluates the incremental prognostic value of myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) with QGS among patients referred for coronary angiography (CAG). ⋯ MPI with QGS, especially with gated functional data, has incremental prognostic value in addition to angiographic findings. MPI with QGS findings predominantly contribute to the prediction of prognosis rather than numbers of diseased vessels assessed by CAG. Thus, MPI with QGS is the most useful tool with which to guide decisions regarding therapy even among patients referred for CAG.