BACKGROUND Cardiac involvement is an important factor for the appropriate management of systemic sclerosis (SSc). The possibility for detecting early myocardial damage was investigated using (99m)Tc methoxyisobutylisonitrile (MIBI) gated perfusion single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and (123)I metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) sympathetic imaging. METHODS AND RESULTS Twenty-three ...

Myocardial flow reserve (MFR) is not routinely assessed in myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) studies but has been hypothesized to affect test accuracy when assessing disease severity by coronary vessel lumenography. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an emerging diagnostic technique that can both perform MPI and assess MFR. We studied women (n = 184) enrolled in the Women's Ischemia Syndrome ...

UNLABELLED Quantitation of regional myocardial function is valuable in patients with coronary artery disease. This study assessed normal heterogeneity and developed and validated normal limits for quantitative regional motion and thickening by gated myocardial perfusion SPECT. METHODS Patients underwent rest (201)Tl/exercise (99m)Tc-sestamibi gated SPECT. Reference values of motion and thicke...

PURPOSE Cardiac computed tomography (CT) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) provide clinically complementary information in the diagnosis of coronary artery disease (CAD). Fused anatomical and physiological data acquired sequentially on separate scanners can be coregistered to accurately diagnose CAD in specific coronary vessels. METHODS A fully automated registration meth...

BACKGROUND Gated single photon emission CT (SPECT) sestamibi imaging allows the simultaneous assessment of myocardial perfusion and left ventricular function. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to evaluate a technique for quantitative regional wall motion assessment using gated SPECT (99m)Tc-sestamibi imaging. PATIENTS AND INTERVENTIONS Fourteen subjects without cardiac pathology and 2...

The development of quantitative gated single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) has enabled the assessment of left ventricular perfusion, function and wall thickness in a single examination. Accordingly, the present study used gated SPECT to assess the benefit of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) in patients with coronary artery disease; 47 of those patients were evaluated before ...

Introduction: To assess if myocardial ischemia evidenced through both perfusion abnormalities and post-stress left ventricular ejection fraction reduction by gated single photon emission tomography (SPECT) myocardial scintigraphy in women with angina and normal coronary angiograms, as well as the presence of endothelial dysfunction, can predict cardiac events during a medium term follow-up. Met...

OBJECTIVES We sought to derive and validate a score to estimate risk after adenosine stress. BACKGROUND Maximizing the prognostic information extracted from adenosine stress myocardial perfusion scintigraphy, a commonly performed test, is often challenging for referring physicians. METHODS A split-set validation of a score predicting cardiovascular mortality was performed in 5,873 consecuti...

BACKGROUND Because of limited surgical field, minimally invasive coronary artery bypass grafting (MIDCAB) requires anastomosis to the distal portion of the left anterior descending artery (LAD) of the left internal thoracic artery (LITA) with the heart beating. Though the diameters of these arteries are very small, it is unknown whether blood flow sufficient for the LAD territory is obtained by...

Background: Behçet's disease (BD) is a multi-system vasculitis that can have a wide range of effects on the cardiovascular system. Objective: To determine the existence of myocardial perfusion defects caused by coronary microvascular dysfunction in asymptomatic BD patients with and with out metabolic syndrome and to evaluate coronary arterial distribution and left ventricular systolic function ...