title: Left ventricular wall function abnormalities in patients with ankylosing spondylitis evaluated by gated myocardial perfusion scintigraphy.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Ankylosing spondilitis (AS) is a chronic inflammatory disease with prominent inflammation in joints and extraarticular organs. AS patients have approximately two times more risk of mortality than the normal population. One reason for this increase in mortality is increased cardiovascular risk. In this study, we have aimed to evaluate myocardial perfusion and left ventricular function using (99m)Tc-MIBI gated myocardial perfusion single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT).
  
  
  METHODS
  The study group consisted of 28 AS patients (19 men, 9 women), and mean age 39.46±10.98 years. All patients underwent (99m)Tc-MIBI gated myocardial perfusion SPECT with the same day protocol.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We detected various risk factors including smoking habits in 12, family history of cardiovascular disease in 12, hypertension in 3, hyperlipidemia in 9 patients. We performed a myocardial perfusion SPECT for each patient and found normal perfusion pattern in SPECT images. Out of 28 patients, eight patients had normal perfusion but wall motion abnormalities.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We detected that myocardial perfusion is preserved in the patients with AS. However, left ventricular wall motion abnormalities are seen. We concluded that ankylosing spondylitis may be associated with microvascular dysfunction and gated myocardial perfusion scintigraphy could be valuable in AS patients for the evaluation of LV function even if the Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index (BASDAI) score are low and the disease duration shorter.
authors: Department of Nuclear Medicine, Mustafa Kemal University School of Medicine, Hatay, Turkey. hulyapeker@yahoo.com
authors: H
authors: H
authors: Yalcin
authors: H
authors: H
authors: Guler
authors: E
authors: E
authors: Gunay
authors: N
authors: N
authors: Yeral
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Turhanoglu
authors: E
authors: E
authors: Bolaç
authors: F
authors: F
authors: Yalcin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D055426:Cardiac-Gated Single-Photon Emission Computer-Assisted Tomography / Q000379:methods*; D015897:Comorbidity; D005080:Exercise Test; D005260:Female; D006334:Heart Function Tests; D006801:Humans; D006949:Hyperlipidemias / Q000453:epidemiology; D006973:Hypertension / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009038:Motion; D055414:Myocardial Perfusion Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D050177:Overweight / Q000453:epidemiology; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D012307:Risk Factors; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D016037:Single-Blind Method; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology; D013167:Spondylitis, Ankylosing / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D017256:Technetium Tc 99m Sestamibi; D018487:Ventricular Dysfunction, Left / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D017256:Technetium Tc 99m Sestamibi