title: Myocardial imaging and radionuclide angiography in survivors of sudden cardiac death due to to ventricular fibrillation: preliminary report.
abstract: Twenty-one long-term survivors of out of hospital sudden cardiac death due to ventricular fibrillation underwent radionuclide angiography and myocardial imaging with thallium-201. In 13 patients images were obtained at rest and after maximal treadmill exercise; 11 of these 13 (85 percent) had an image defect in one or both studies. Eleven of the 21 patients (52 percent) had a defect in the image obtained at rest. The magnitude of myocardial image defects was typically great; some patients had an image abnormality without other clinical evidence (angina, S-T depression) of ischemia. The mean ejection fraction, assessed in 16 patients with radionuclide angiography, was 0.41 +/- 0.15 (standard deviation); in 5 of the 16 ejection fraction was normal (more than 0.50) and in 3 it was severely abnormal (less than 0.25). Thus, noninvasive radionuclide studies defined a broad spectrum of ischemic and ventriculographic abnormalities in survivors of sudden cardiac death. Further application of these noninvasive studies may identify those at high risk.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000792:Angiography / Q000379:methods; D003645:Death, Sudden / Q000209:etiology; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005260:Female; D006321:Heart / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D005082:Physical Exertion; D011868:Radioisotopes; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging; D013667:Technetium; D013793:Thallium; D014693:Ventricular Fibrillation / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology
chemical_list: D011868:Radioisotopes; D013667:Technetium; D013793:Thallium