title: The contribution of nuclear medicine and ultrasounds in cardiac surgery.
abstract: The constant progress in surgical techniques during the last few years have prepared the way for important developments in the field of noninvasive cardiac exploration. Their non-traumatic character, appreciable in diagnostic and preoperative examinations, become indipensable whenever there is a need to repeat the examination in order to evaluate the effects of a treatment or to monitor progress both in the short and long term. In order that such methods be adopted in cardiac surgery it is important that not only must they be without risk but also that the results obtained be clearly presented, if possible in the form of images, and allow a quantitative interpretation. It is necessary also that the results can be justified both by clinical experience and also by comparison with other examinations. No procedure, not even radiologic, can at the same time explore the myocardium and its perfusion, the central circulation and the cardiac haemodynamics. By reason of their respective principles, radioisotopic methods and ultrasounds tackle cardiac problems in different ways and facilitate, by appropriate choice of methods, the selection of one diagnostic response from among several. This paper contains first of all, a resume of the principal nuclear and ultrasonic techniques used together with their basic principles. Next we try to show how these non-invasive techniques, most with dynamic imaging, can assist cardiac surgery. For this, we successively look at the different pathologies, working from the exterior (pericardium) towards the interior (intracardiac structures and central circulation) and covering the different aspects of the myocardial pathology. In each case the mutual contributions of physical techniques is specified as well as the preference for either isotopic or ultrasonic methods.
mesh_terms: D000790:Angiocardiography / Q000379:methods; D009202:Cardiomyopathies / Q000175:diagnosis; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D004452:Echocardiography / Q000379:methods*; D006321:Heart / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006322:Heart Aneurysm / Q000175:diagnosis; D006330:Heart Defects, Congenital / Q000175:diagnosis; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000601:surgery; D006349:Heart Valve Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000175:diagnosis; D011868:Radioisotopes; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging
chemical_list: D011868:Radioisotopes