Ambulatory cardiac single-photon emission computed tomography at the primary care physician's office: a descriptive study.
Ambulatory cardiac single-photon emission computed tomography stress testing for the evaluation of coronary artery disease at the primary care physician's office is increasingly utilized without data supporting its safety. In this 2-year prospective pilot study of 1266 consecutive stress-myocardial perfusion imaging studies done in the primary care physician's office using a mobile nuclear cardiology laboratory, adverse events were mild and rare. There were no recorded events of myocardial infarction, serious arrhythmias, severe bronchospasm, hospitalization, or death. This suggests that this practice is safe in this population with these providers. This finding may not apply to a higher-risk population. Further evaluation of referral appropriateness and long-term prognostic value is needed.
Chaptini
Nayla
N
Section of Cardiology, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois 60612, USA.
Dontaraju
Venkata Satish
VS
Concepcion
Frederman
F
Muradi
Hazem Al
HA
Alyousef
Tareq
T
Del Pilar Aristizábal Canaval
Maria
M
Doukky
Rami
R
D000553:Ambulatory Care; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000175:diagnosis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010824:Physicians' Offices; D010865:Pilot Projects; D019095:Point-of-Care Systems; D011320:Primary Health Care; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012449:Safety; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon / Q000295:instrumentation*