Usefulness of progressive inhomogeneity of myocardial perfusion and chronotropic incompetence in detecting cardiac allograft vasculopathy: evaluation with dobutamine thallium-201 myocardial SPECT.
BACKGROUND
The aim of the study was to investigate the value of longitudinal follow-up of dobutamine thallium-201 single photon emission tomography ((201)Tl SPECT) in the development of significant cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV) after orthotopic heart transplantation.


METHODS
We studied 38 cardiac recipients (mean age 57 +/- 12 years) who underwent at least two follow-up dobutamine (201)Tl SPECT since January 1998. All patients had normal coronary angiography and normal left ventricular function initially.


RESULTS
After 2.3 +/- 1.8 years, 12 patients developed significant CAV and there were 4 cardiac deaths (1 died suddenly). Of the 99 scans retrospectively analyzed, patients with significant CAV had elevated values of inhomogeneity score, lung/heart ratio (LHR) at stress and lower left ventricular ejection fraction (all p < 0.05). The higher values of inhomogeneity were significantly correlated with higher stress LHR (r = 0.301, p = 0.021), and lower ejection fraction (r = -0.379, p < 0.001). Progressive inhomogeneity was noted in all heart recipients, and more rapid, although statistically insignificant, in patients who developed significant CAV. Ten patients had inadequate chronotropic response to dobutamine infusion up to 40 mug/kg/min in the follow-up studies. The late onset of chronotropic incompetence was an independent predictor of CAV development (p = 0.03).


CONCLUSIONS
Progressive inhomogeneity of myocardial perfusion, higher lung uptake at stress and chronotropic incompetence assessed by dobutamine (201)Tl myocardial SPECT provide incremental diagnostic value in detecting significant CAV.
Wu
Yen-Wen
YW
Department of Nuclear Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei.
Yen
Ruoh-Fang
RF
Lee
Chii-Ming
CM
Ho
Yi-Lwun
YL
Wang
Shoei-Shen
SS
Hsu
Ron-Bin
RB
Chou
Nai-Kuan
NK
Huang
Por-Jau
PJ
D000318:Adrenergic beta-Agonists; D000368:Aged; D004280:Dobutamine; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D016027:Heart Transplantation; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015425:Myocardial Reperfusion; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology* / Q000401:mortality; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013318:Stroke Volume / Q000502:physiology; D016019:Survival Analysis; D013794:Thallium Radioisotopes; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D000318:Adrenergic beta-Agonists; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D013794:Thallium Radioisotopes; D004280:Dobutamine