Annals of nuclear cardiology最新文献

The Japanese Society of Nuclear Cardiology (JSNC) and the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC) have a relationship through a memorandum of understanding (MOU). This April, the MOU was extended for two more years. Based on this MOU, we hold a joint symposium at the JSNC annual meeting early in the summer each year. The theme of the joint symposium this year was "Inflammatory diseases of heart and large vessels". We consider the success of the joint symposium to be the fruit of the close relationship between JSNC and ASNC.

Background: In myocardial gated single-photon emission computed tomography (GSPECT), to differentiate true changes of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) from inherent methodical variability is clinically relevant; however, data about repeatability of GSPECT LVEF in the same patients are rather inconsistent in literature. The aim of this study was therefore to determine repeatability coefficient (RC) of GSPECT LVEF at rest and to investigate the effect of the introduction of processing constraints in left ventricular edge detection. Methods: Thirty-five patients referred for one-day myocardial GSPECT stress-rest scan were included. After the routine stress-rest study, patients were completely repositioned on the imaging table for a second rest acquisition using the same acquisition parameters. LVEF was computed using Corridor 4DM software without and with manual alignment of valve plane. Repeatability was assessed using the Bland-Altman method. Results: RC of LVEF from unaligned datasets was 7.6% with upper and lower limits of agreement of 7.4% to -7.8%. After valve plane and ventricular long-axis length alignment, RC improved to 3.6% with upper and lower limits of agreement of 3.4% to -3.8%. Conclusions: RC using unaligned determination of GSPECT LVEF was comparable to that from previous publications. However, RC using valve plane alignment could be improved to below 4% on 95% confidence level.

Purpose/Method: No studies have reported on prognostic markers in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) according to the severity of the disease. Therefore, in this multicenter, prospective trial performed as part of the Gunma CKD SPECT Multicenter Study, we recruited 311 patients with CKD (eGFR < 60 min/mL/1.73 m²) including 50 patients on hemodialysis and followed them for 2 years. The study sample underwent stress ^99mTc-tetrofosmin SPECT for suspected or possible ischemic heart disease. We evaluated the summed stress score (SSS), summed rest score (SRS), summed difference score (SDS) and cardiac function with electrocardiogram-gated SPECT. Then, we compared the differences in prognostic markers for major adverse cardiac, cerebrovascular, and renal events (MACCRE) between patients with mild CKD (30 min/mL/1.73 m² ≤ eGFR <60 min/mL/1.73 m²; n=184) and those with severe CKD (eGFR <30 min/mL/1.73 m²; n=97). Results: Of 281 patients available for analysis, 91 experienced MACCRE. In a multivariate Cox proportional hazards analysis of factors related to MACCRE, in patients with mild CKD the significant prognostic markers were SDS (P=0.002) and end-systolic volume (ESV, P=0.034); and in the patients with severe CKD, they were eGFR (P=0.03) and diabetes-mellitus (DM, P=0.023). Conclusions: Our findings indicate that SDS and ESV are significant prognostic markers for MACCRE in patients with mild CKD and eGFR and DM are significant prognostic markers in patients with severe CKD.

Objective: Although semiconductor single-photon emission computed tomography (D-SPECT) has been used for myocardial perfusion imaging, few studies have compared its ability to detect myocardial ischemia with that of 3-detector SPECT (GCA9300R). This study used invasive coronary angiography to determine whether the detectability of myocardial ischemia differs between D-SPECT and GCA9300R. Materials and methods: This study included 24 patients who were assessed by coronary angiography within 60 days of myocardial perfusion D-SPECT and GCA9300R. Two nuclear medicine physicians interpreted myocardial perfusion D-SPECT and GCA9300R images with five grades of confidence, then defined regions of ischemia on polar maps. The gold standard was determined by another nuclear cardiology specialist based on integrated assessment of the coronary angiography findings and other clinical information derived from medical charts. The concordance rate and the Cohen kappa (κ) between D-SPECT and GCA9300R were calculated. Results: The sensitivity, specificity, negative and positive predictive values, and the accuracy of patient-based diagnoses were 66.7%, 91.7%, 89.2%, 72.8%, and 85.5%, respectively, for GCA9300R, and 83.3%, 83.3%, 93.7%, 62.4%, and 83.3%, respectively, for D-SPECT. Interpretations of ischemia did not uncover any significant differences between D-SPECT and GCA9300R. The Cohen κ values of D-SPECT and GCA9300 agreed substantially, moderately and marginally for the left circumflex coronary artery (LCX) (0.68), right coronary artery (RCA) (0.43), and left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) (0.39), respectively. Conclusions: The detectability of myocardial ischemia is comparable between D-SPECT and GCA9300R. Sensitivity is better for D-SPECT than GCA9300R. However, false-positive D-SPECT findings, especially in the apex and inferior wall should be interpreted with caution.