Myocardial studies in haemodialysis patients.
Myocardial perfusion was studied using Thallium-201 (Tl-201) after dipyridamol in 33 patients on maintenance haemodialysis. It could be shown that coronary artery disease was underestimated by clinical symptoms, 55 per cent of patients had abnormal Tl-201 scintigrams, whereas typical or atypical chest pain was present in only 33 per cent of the patients. Eleven patients died within a year of the scintigraphic study, which resulted in an average mortality rate of 7.7 per cent/year. The risk of developing fatal cardiovascular complications was higher in patients with an abnormal Tl-201 perfusion (7 of 18) than in those with a normal scintigram (1 of 15). Thus nuclear medicine procedures appear to be of diagnostic value in haemodialysis patients, which in addition may have prognostic implications.
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000150:complications* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic / Q000150:complications*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging; D006435:Renal Dialysis