Dipyridamole-Thallium Scintigraphy and Gated Radionuclide Angiography to Assess Cardiac Risk before Abdominal Aortic Surgery

Coronary artery disease is commonly associated with peripheral vascular disease and is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality after vascular surgery 1 – 4 . For the preoperative assessment of cardiac risk, several tests have been proposed, including exercise stress testing, 5 Holter monitoring, 6 – 8 measurement of the left ventricular ejection fraction, 9 , 10 and dipyridamole-thallium scintigraphy 11 – 15 . Scintigraphy permits the assessment of myocardial perfusion in patients who are unable to perform an exercise test. The accuracy of preoperative dipyridamole-thallium scintigraphy in predicting the postoperative risk of myocardial infarction has been emphasized by several studies 11 – 15 . However, most previous studies did . . .