Quantification of myocardial scintigraphy in patients with low probability of coronary artery disease. Normal values of thallium-201 gated SPECT

This study has aimed to establish quantitative normality parameters in the thallium-201 GATED SPECT and to assess the changes related to age, gender, risk factors and stress testing. A total of 427 patients with low pre-test likelihood of coronary artery disease were selected (45.5% men). The examinations were performed, by obtaining 32 25-second images on a 180% arc. The isotope used was thallium-201 and the SU SEGAMI software was using for the examination procedure. Myocardial tracer uptake in each one of the vascular territories was: left descending artery 77%+/-4; circumflex artery 76%+/-5 and right coronary artery 70%+/-4 (P=.000). Uptake in the right coronary artery territory was lower in men (68.7% vs 70.5% in women, P=.000) and in the left descending artery territory in the obese. There were no gender-related differences in the post-stress ejection fraction for both genders (65.7% in men vs 66.8% in women). However, ventricular volumes were higher in men (end-diastolic volume 80ml+/-27 vs 61ml+/-22; P=0.000 and end-systolic volume 27.2ml+/-25 vs 19ml+/-8; P=0.000). There is an inverse relationship between age and end-diastolic volume. Smokers have higher end-diastolic volumes than non-smokers. Quantification of T1201 uptake in patients having low pre-test probability of coronary artery disease and normal thallium GATED-SPECT in the RCA territory is lower in men. The ventricular function study shows that there are no differences in post-stress EF based on gender but that the end-diastolic and end-systolic volumes are higher in men.