title: Myocardial perfusion defects and coronary risk factors in symptomatic and asymptomatic elderly women.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  We investigated the relation between risk factors of coronary artery disease (CAD) and myocardial ischemia detected by (201)Tl SPECT in elderly women.
  
  
  METHODS
  306 women aged >or=75 yr (79.1 +/- 3.6 yr) who underwent pharmacologic (201)Tl SPECT for suspected CAD based on symptoms or CAD risk factors were included. Coronary risk factors were evaluated by medical records, and included diabetes mellitus (DM), hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, cigarette smoking, greater age (>or=80 yr), and obesity. Summed stress score (SSS), summed rest score (SRS), and summed difference score (SDS) were calculated based on stress and redistribution SPECT images for semi-quantification.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The symptomatic group (n = 110) had a 34.5% perfusion defect rate. The asymptomatic group (n = 196) had a significantly lower perfusion defect rate of 16.8%. However, this significantly increased to 29.4% and 22.0% in the presence of diabetes mellitus (DM) and hypertension, respectively. In addition, the summed stress score of asymptomatic patients (12.4 +/- 6.0) was not lower but comparable to that of symptomatic patients (10.0 +/- 6.0).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In elderly women suspected of CAD, pharmacologic perfusion imaging can be used to identify myocardial ischemia in patients with angina as well as asymptomatic subjects with concurrent DM or hypertension.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, 50 Ilwondong, Kangnamgu, Seoul, Korea. suesj@samsung.com
authors.forename: Su Jin
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Kyung-Han
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: So-Mi
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Eun Jeong
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Hyun Woo
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.forename: Young Seok
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.forename: Joon Young
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Byung-Tae
authors.initials: BT
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D017202:Myocardial Ischemia / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D012307:Risk Factors; D013794:Thallium Radioisotopes; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon