Systematic review of the prognostic effectiveness of SPECT myocardial perfusion scintigraphy in patients with suspected or known coronary artery disease and following myocardial infarction.
OBJECTIVE
In patients with suspected or known coronary artery disease (CAD), or following myocardial infarction (MI), assessing the degree of ischaemia is important from a prognostic and therapeutic point of view. Single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) myocardial perfusion scintigraphy (MPS) is a non-invasive technique that allows the presence, location and extent of ischaemia to be determined. The aim of this systematic review was to assess the prognostic effectiveness of SPECT MPS.


METHODS
We sought prognostic studies involving SPECT, exercise tolerance testing (ETT) and/or coronary angiography (CA) in people with suspected or known CAD, or following MI. Outcomes included cardiac death, non-fatal MI and revascularization. We searched the following databases: MEDLINE, PREMEDLINE, EMBASE, BIOSIS, Science Citation Index, the Cochrane Library, the Health Management Information Consortium and the Health Technology Assessment Database.


RESULTS
Twenty-one observational studies enrolling 53,762 people reported the general prognostic value of SPECT MPS. In multivariate analysis, SPECT MPS variables yielded both independent and incremental value to combinations of clinical, ETT and angiographic variables in predicting cardiac death or non-fatal MI. Three comparative studies reported lower revascularization rates following a SPECT MPS-CA strategy (6-21%) compared with direct CA (16-44%). Four observational studies enrolling 2106 people reported the prognostic value of SPECT for patients following MI. In multivariate analysis including clinical history, ETT, SPECT MPS and angiographic variables, strategies involving SPECT MPS provided independent and incremental prognostic performance in predicting future cardiac events.


CONCLUSIONS
SPECT MPS provides important additional information to that from ETT and/or CA that helps to risk-stratify patients with suspected or known CAD or following MI, enabling them to be managed more appropriately. Increasing the use of strategies involving SPECT MPS may identify lower risk patients for whom invasive CA might be avoided.
Mowatt
Graham
G
Health Services Research Unit, Institute of Applied Health Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Polwarth Building, Foresterhill, Aberdeen, AB25 2ZD, UK. g.mowatt@abdn.ac.uk
Brazzelli
Miriam
M
Gemmell
Howard
H
Hillis
Graham S
GS
Metcalfe
Malcolm
M
Vale
Luke
L
D000368:Aged; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015897:Comorbidity; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000401:mortality*; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000401:mortality*; D015995:Prevalence; D011379:Prognosis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D012307:Risk Factors; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology