title: Cardiac assessment prior to vascular surgery: is dipyridamole-sestamibi necessary?
abstract: Dipyridamole-sestamibi (PMIBI) is recommended prior to vascular surgery in patients with > or = 1 Eagle criteria (Q waves, history of ventricular ectopy, diabetes, advanced age, and/or angina). To review our cardiac morbidity and mortality and the need for preoperative PMIBI, we reviewed 109 consecutive patients with a mean age of 59 years who underwent 145 elective major vascular procedures over a 1-year period. Seventy patients (with a mean of 0.8 Eagle criteria) underwent 92 vascular procedures without preoperative PMIBI and without coronary revascularization. Thirty-one patients (with a mean of 1.1 Eagle criteria) underwent 39 procedures without coronary revascularization following PMIBI, which showed reversible ischemia in seven and a fixed defect in 10; findings were normal in 14. Preoperative coronary bypass or angioplasty was limited to eight patients (14 procedures, mean of 1.6 Eagle criteria) who had unstable angina with (2 patients) or without (6 patients) acute myocardial infarction. There were four perioperative myocardial infarctions (2.8%), seven cardiac events overall (4.8%), and one cardiac death (0.7%). Three (43%) of the seven cardiac events occurred in patients with a normal scan or fixed defect on PMIBI imaging. In the absence of unstable angina, PMIBI had a sensitivity of only 25% and a specificity of 80% for cardiac events. We conclude that among patients without severe cardiac symptoms (1) PMIBI has a very limited ability to identify patients at risk for cardiac complications, and (2) preoperative PMIBI is neither necessary nor cost-effective.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Torrance, 90509, USA.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: de Virgilio
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pak
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Arnell
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Donayre
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Lewis
authors.forename: B E
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Stabile
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: White
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000787:Angina Pectoris / Q000150:complications; D000789:Angina, Unstable / Q000150:complications; D015906:Angioplasty, Balloon, Coronary; D001026:Coronary Artery Bypass; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D016757:Death, Sudden, Cardiac / Q000209:etiology; D048909:Diabetes Complications; D004176:Dipyridamole / Q000191:economics; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000209:etiology; D017202:Myocardial Ischemia / Q000209:etiology; D011300:Preoperative Care / Q000191:economics; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals / Q000191:economics; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D017256:Technetium Tc 99m Sestamibi / Q000191:economics; D014656:Vascular Surgical Procedures / Q000009:adverse effects; D014665:Vasodilator Agents / Q000191:economics; D018879:Ventricular Premature Complexes / Q000150:complications
chemical_list: D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D014665:Vasodilator Agents; D004176:Dipyridamole; D017256:Technetium Tc 99m Sestamibi