Semi-quantitative indices of cardiac uptake in patients with suspected cardiac amyloidosis undergoing 99mTc-HMDP scintigraphy.

BACKGROUND: 99mTc-HMDP scintigraphy has proved its efficacy in non-invasive diagnosis of cardiac amyloidosis (CA) and is currently interpreted according to the Perugini qualitative assessment. Several semi-quantitative indices have been proposed to overcome inherent possible limitations of visual grading. Our aim was to comparatively evaluate six different indices and their diagnostic performance. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed scintigraphy of 76 patients (53 ATTR, 12 AL, 11 LVH) who underwent diagnostic evaluation at our centre. ROC-curve analysis was performed to identify optimal cut-off and relative diagnostic accuracy of six different indices (of which one was proposed for the first time), both in identifying CA patients and in discriminating patients according to their Perugini score. RESULTS: Heart/Whole-body ratios proved to be the most accurate (100%) in identifying CA patients. Heart/Pelvis ratio (with soft tissue background correction) offered acceptable accuracy (98%), with the largest area under the curve (AUC) (0.98) in discriminating patients with Perugini ≥ 2. Heart/Contralateral Lung ratio confirmed to be exposed to confounding background noise in case of simultaneous lung uptake. Heart/Skull ratio had the worst performance, with six false-negative patients in ATTR identification. CONCLUSION: Heart/Whole-body ratios may be robust and effective semi-quantitative indices for the evaluation of CA by means of scintigraphy.

Accuracy of 99mTc-Hydroxymethylene diphosphonate scintigraphy for diagnosis of transthyretin cardiac amyloidosis.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Either 99mTechnetium diphosphonate (Tc-DPD) or pyrophosphate (Tc-PYP) scintigraphy plays a relevant role in diagnosing transthyretin cardiac amyloidosis (CA), and labeled radiotracers have been extensively studied in diagnosing CA. Few studies have analyzed and validated 99mTc-Hydroxymethylene diphosphonate (Tc-HMDP). Our aim was to validate the diagnostic accuracy of Tc-HMDP total-body scintigraphy in a cohort of patients with biopsy-proven transthyretin CA. METHODS AND RESULTS: We retrospectively evaluated all patients undergoing 99mTc-HMDP total-body scintigraphy, in adjunct to a comprehensive diagnostic work-up for suspected CA. Sixty-five patients were finally diagnosed with CA, while it was excluded in 20 subjects with left ventricular hypertrophy of various etiologies. Twenty-six patients had AL-CA, 39 had TTR CA (16 TTRm, 23 TTRwt). At Tc-HMDP scintigraphy, 2 AL patients showed a Perugini score grade 1 heart uptake, while 24 showed no uptake. All TTR patients showed Tc-HMDP uptake, with three patients showing a Perugini score grade 1, 16 grade 2, and 20 grade 3, respectively. No uptake was observed in patients with left ventricular hypertrophy. A positive Tc-HMDP scintigraphy showed a 100% sensitivity and a 96% specificity for TTR CA identification. CONCLUSIONS: Tc-HMDP scintigraphy is as accurate as Tc-DPD or Tc-PYP, and may therefore de facto be considered a valuable tool for the diagnosis of TTR CA.

Lung uptake during 99mTc-hydroxymethylene diphosphonate scintigraphy in patient with TTR cardiac amyloidosis: An underestimated phenomenon.

BACKGROUND: Full body scintigraphy using bone tracers plays an important role in defining the type of amyloidosis and in diagnosing the heart involvement (cardiac amyloidosis, CA). No study has been conducted to explore lung retention (LR) in CA and its correlation to heart retention (HR).We evaluated LR in patients undergoing 99mTc-HMDP scintigraphy during evaluation for suspected CA. METHODS AND RESULTS: We enrolled 93 suspected CA patients. Patients underwent a complete diagnostic work up. After diagnostic process 82 patients resulted affected by certain CA (20 AL and 62 TTR), while 11 subjects showed left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) not caused by CA. 99mTc-HMDP cardiac uptake was evaluated using the Perugini visual score while the modified Janssen score was used for LR estimation (grade 0 no uptake, grade 1 less than ribs, grade 2 more than ribs). RESULTS: 99mTc-HMDP LR was observed in 1/20 AL patient (5%), while 36/62 (58%) TTR patients showed LR with 29 grade 1 (47%) and 7 grade 2 (11%). No LR was observed in patients with LVH and no CA. LR was not evident in patients without HR, present in 1/3 (33%) of the patients with Perugini 1 HR and 11/24 (46%) and 26/36 (72%) of the patients showing respectively a Perugini 2 and a Perugini 3. CONCLUSION: 99mTc-HMDP scintigraphy shows LR in about 60% of TTR subjects, related to the grade of HR. In AL amyloidosis LR is less frequent than in TTR amyloidosis suggesting an aetiological tropism that seems comparable to the already known TTR related cardiac tropism.

Nuclear scan strategy and outcomes in chest pain patients value of stress testing with dipyridamole or adenosine.

OBJECTIVE: To update the prognostic value of scan strategy with pharmacological stress agent in chest pain (CP) patients presenting with normal electrocardiography (ECG) and troponin. METHODS: Two consecutive nonrandomized series of patients with CP and negative first-line workup inclusive of serial ECG, serial troponin, and echocardiography underwent myocardial perfusion imaging single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) in the emergency department. Of 170 patients enrolled, 52 patients underwent dipyridamole-SPECT and 118 adenosine-SPECT. Patients with perfusion defects underwent angiography, whereas the remaining patients were discharged and followed-up. Primary endpoint was the composite of nonfatal myocardial infarction, unstable angina, revascularization, and cardiovascular death at follow-up or the presence of coronary stenosis > 50% at angiography. RESULTS: At multivariate analysis, the presence of perfusion defects or hypertension was independent predictor of the primary endpoint. Sensitivity and negative predictive value were higher in patients subjected to adenosine-SPECT (95% and 99%, respectively) versus dipyridamole-SPECT (56% and 89%; yield 70% and 11%, respectively; P < 0.03). Of note, sensitivity, negative, and positive predictive values were high in patients with hypertension (100%, 93%, and 60%, respectively) or nonischemic echocardiography alterations (100%, 100%, and 100%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: In CP patients, presenting with normal ECG and troponin, adenosine-SPECT adds incremental prognostic values to dipyridamole-SPECT. Costly scan strategy is more appropriate and avoids unnecessary angiograms in patients with hypertension or nonischemic echocardiography alterations.

Yield of nuclear scan strategy in chest pain unit evaluation of special populations.

BACKGROUND: Patients with chest pain (CP) and nondiagnostic ECG represent heterogeneous population in whom the evaluation of coronary risk factors including metabolic syndrome (MetS) and diabetes mellitus (DM) might improve risk stratification. METHODS: We enrolled 798 consecutive CP patients; 14% presented with MetS and 10% with DM; the remaining 76% presented with other coronary risk profiles (others). All patients underwent maximal exercise tolerance test (ETT) and myocardial perfusion imaging (exercise-MPI). Those with positive testing underwent angiography, whereas the remaining patients were discharged and later followed up. Primary end-point was a composite of coronary stenoses greater than or equal to 50% documented by angiography or coronary events at follow-up. RESULTS: Patients with MetS or DM had significantly lower survival free from end-point than those patients without (P<0.001). Exercise-MPI showed high negative predictive value in MetS, DM, and others (>96%); however, positive predictive value was 69, 74, and 52%, respectively (P<0.05). ETT alone showed negative predictive value (88%) which was significantly lower than exercise-MPI (98%), (MetS vs. others: P<0.001, and DM vs. others: P=0.05). The area under the receiver-operating characteristic curves obtained from the multivariate model includes clinical data alone, clinical data and ETT results, or clinical data and exercise-MPI results increase progressively. CONCLUSION: A nuclear scan strategy in special populations, including CP patients with MetS or DM, is a valuable tool for risk stratification and adds incremental prognostic value over clinical and ETT values.

Assessment of patients with low-risk chest pain in the emergency department: Head-to-head comparison of exercise stress echocardiography and exercise myocardial SPECT.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to compare head-to-head the performance of exercise tolerance test-stress echocardiography (ex-Echo) and exercise stress-perfusion nuclear imaging (exercise-single-photon emission computed tomography [ex-SPECT]) for the diagnosis of coronary artery disease (CAD) in patients evaluated at the chest pain unit with delay from chest pain (CP) onset. BACKGROUND: As an early triage strategy for CAD in emergency medicine, ex-Echo could have the advantage of widespread availability and low costs. METHODS: In the years 2000-2002, 503 consecutive patients (mean age 60 years) with recent (<24 hours) CP and nonischemic electrocardiogram (ECG), in whom CAD remained undiagnosed after first line 6-hour work-up including serum markers of myocardial injury and resting echocardiogram, underwent ex-Echo and ex-SPECT within 24 hours. Patients with (+)ex-Echo or (+)ex-SPECT or (+)ex-ECG or abnormal troponin I were referred to coronary angiography; otherwise, they were discharged and followed up. End points were coronary stenosis > or =50% and cardiovascular events at 6-month follow-up. RESULTS: Ninety-nine patients (20%) had (+)ex-Echo and 121 (24%) (+)ex-SPECT; CAD was diagnosed in 81% and 67%, respectively; positive tests were concordant in 69%. In negative ex-Echo and ex-SPECT, final evidence of CAD emerged in 14 and 13, respectively. Ex-Echo demonstrated higher accuracy than ex-SPECT (93% +/- 1% vs 89% +/- 1%), optimal specificity (95% +/- 5% vs 90% +/- 5%), and positive predictive value (81% +/- 4% vs 67% +/- 4%); moreover, in the case of (-)ex-ECG, observed effective likelihood ratio indicates a (+)synergy between ex-ECG and ex-Echo. CONCLUSIONS: Ex-Echo can be an effective diagnostic strategy in the early triage of CP patients, improving diagnosis in case of (-)ex-ECG and reducing unnecessary angiography number. Its drawback is represented by the 5% of missed diagnosis.