Important role of cardiac spect imaging in patients undergoing percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the utilization and contribution of cardiac perfusion scans to patients undergoing percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty.


METHODS
From July 1996 to January 1998, 34 patients underwent percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty and cardiac SPECT imaging was studied. Twenty-five patients had pre-procedure SPECT scans. The agreement between angioplasty strategies and SPECT findings of ischemia and hypokinesia was examined.


RESULTS
When radionuclide imaging was performed before revascularization procedures, 84% of the patients had intervention strategies guided by scan findings. Perfusion scan findings including extent and severity of ischemia, degree of hypokinesia directed the selection of target vessel for angioplasty in the patient subgroup with multi-vessel disease. Post-angioplasty radionuclide cardiac scans were performed only on symptomatic patients, demonstrating ischemia and hypokinesia in most of them, conceivably reflected the selection bias.


CONCLUSIONS
We recommend routine pre- and post-angioplasty radionuclide imaging with multigated scans for wall motion assessment for all patients receiving coronary intervention.
Yung
B C
BC
Department of Radiology and Organ Imaging, United Chiristian Hospital, 130, Hip Wo Street, Kwun Tong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China.
Chan
W K
WK
Yue
C S
CS
Fan
W C
WC
Leung
K F
KF
Fung
A S
AS
Chan
J C
JC
D000368:Aged; D015906:Angioplasty, Balloon, Coronary; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017256:Technetium Tc 99m Sestamibi; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon
D017256:Technetium Tc 99m Sestamibi