• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.218-222
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• 1993

Lung/heart uptake ratio (L/H R) in $^{201}Tl$ myocardial perfusion scan is a reliable marker for long-term prognosis in patients with coronary artery disease. However, the value of L/H R in $^{99m}Tc-MIBI$ myocardial perfusion scan is controversial in determining the prognosis and severity of the coronary artery disease. The purpose of this study was to determine the clinical implications of L/H R in $^{99m}Tc-MIBI$ myocardial perfusion scan. Forty five patients who received $^{99m}Tc-MIBI$ myocardial perfusion scan were divided into control group and coronary artery disease (CAD) group by their clinical findings, EKGs, and $^{99m}Tc-MIBI$ myocardial perfusion scans. Twenty five patients in CAD group were divided into ischemic group and infarct group according to their results from $^{99m}Tc-MIBI$ myocardial perfusion scan. L/H R was calculated on the anterior planar view, 60 minutes after infusion of dipyridamole. Two regions of interest (ROI) were placed on the left lung area 8 pixel above the left ventricle and on the myocardial area which had the highest radioactivity. In the control group, there were no significant differences of L/H R according to sex and age. No significant difference of L/H R was found between the control and CAD group ($0.26{\pm}0.06,\;0.29{\pm}0.05$, p>0.05). In the CAD group, there was also no significant difference of L/H R between the ischemic group and infarct group ($0.29{\pm}0.07,\;0.30{\pm}0.04$, p>0.05). L/H R in CAD group did not show correlations with the defect area of stress polar map (r=0.18, p >0.05) and with the sum of severity weighted extent score or reversibility score which represent severity and extent of myocardial perfusion defect area in stress (r=0.18, p>0.05). We conclude that it is difficult to use L/H R as a marker for severity of CAD in dipyridamole $^{99m}Tc-MIBI$ myocardial perfusion scan.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.88-91
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• 2018

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the simultaneous dual isotope (SDI) myocardial perfusion scan that can be performed in a short time using a semiconductor gamma camera. Materials and Methods Of the 86 patients who underwent Rest/Stress $^{99m}TC$-sestaMIBI 1-day myocardial perfusion scan and Rest $^{99m}TC$-sestaMIBI/Stress $^{201}Tl$ simultaneous dual isotope myocardial perfusion scan using a heart-only gamma camera, the test results were the same, 36 patients who did not show any change in the clinical outcome. Quantitative values were statistically analyzed using a QPS program to confirm the correlation between the images of the two examinations. Results Rest/Stress $^{99m}TC$-sestaMIBI simultaneous dual myocardial perfusion scans and $^{99m}TC$-sestaMIBI/Stress $^{201}Tl$ double-isotope myocardial perfusion scans were analyzed for Summed score. The $R^2$ value of the Rest summed score (RSS) was 0.91 and the $R^2$ value of the stress summed score (SSS) was 0.71. Conclusion The $^{99m}TC$-sestaMIBI/Stress $^{201}Tl$ simultaneous dual isotope scan confirmed its correlation with the previous day's test. The $^{99m}TC$-sestaMIBI/Stress $^{201}Tl$ simultaneous dual isotope scan can be completed in approximately 30minutes. It maybe clinically useful for patients who need short examination time such as emergency patients or elderly patients.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.502-506
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• 1996

Tc-99m myocardial perfusion agents such as Tc-99m sestamibi or Tc-99m tetrofosmin has advantages over T1-201 for myocardial perfusion scan fuck as low attenuation and easy availability. However, Tc-99m agents do not redistribute so they need to be given T times, namely after stress and at rest. To evaluate whether rest image is needed in patients showing normal stress image, 43 patients who underwent both myocardial perfusion scan and coronary angiography and showed normal stress images were evaluated. Findings of rest images of them were evaluated whether they change the diagnosis or treatment plans. Among 43 patients who showed normal stress myocardial perfusion imaging, 31 (72.1%) showed no additional informations. However, among 5 patients with vasospastic angina 4 (80%) showed abnormal rest images in spite of normal stress images. So, when vasospastic angina is suspected clinically, rest image could be helpful in identifying patients with coronary vasospasm. In conclusion, rest myocardial perfusion images were not helpful in 72.1 % of patients with angina when stress images were normal. In only exception was those with vasospastic angina.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.274-279
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• 1992

Clinical role of $^{99m}Tc-MIBI$ myocardial scintigraphy in the diagnosis of coronary artery disease (CAD) is now well accepted, however, the role of it in the identification of viable myocardium in patients with chronic CAD has not yet been clarified. To determine the usefulness of rest-injected $^{99m}Tc-MIBI$ scan as a marker of myocardial viability, the regional uptake of this agent at rest was compared with that of $^{201}Tl$ on reinjection and 24 hours after reinjection images. Subject patients were 13 chronic CAD patients who showed irreversible perfusion defect(s) on standard pharmacologic (dipyridamole) stress-redistribution images. Immediately after the redistribution images were obtained, 37 MBq thallium was injected at rest, and images were reacquired at 10 minutes and 24 hours after reinjection. After then 740 MBq $^{99m}Tc-MIBI$ was injected, and 1 hour later rest MIBI myocardial imaging was performed. Five sets of imagestress, redistribution, reinjection, delayed images of thallium, and rest image of MIBI) were then analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. Left ventricle was arbitrarily divided into 9 segments (apex, basal and apical portions of anterior, septal, inferior, and lateral walls). Seven patients and 30 regions showed a fixed perfusion defect on the stress-redistribution images. Among 30 regions, 15 showed positive uptakes and 6 showed negative uptakes on both $^{201}Tl$ reinjection/delayed images and $^{99m}Tc-MIBI$ rest images. Five regions showed only thallium uptake and were regarded as viable clinically. Of four regions which showed only $^{99m}Tc-MIBI$ uptake, two were regarded as viable, while the other two were regarded as a nonviable scar tissue clinically. In conclusion, $^{201}Tl$ reinjection technique was more reliable in the identification of viable myocardium. However, the role of $^{99m}Tc-MIBI$ in identification of viable myocardium was still remained to be clarified because 2 of 9 regions showed only $^{99m}Tc-MIBI$ uptake and were regarded as viable tissues.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.265-273
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• 1992

Rest gated blood pool scan (Rest GBP scan) and dipyridamole $^{99m}Tc-MIBI$ SPECT were Performed in 34 patients with or suspected coronary artery disease. Both studies were performed within $2\sim32$ days (mean 8.1 days). A significant correlation was present between left ventricular ejection fraction (r= -0.7356, p<0.001) and peak ejection rate and peak filling rate in rest GBP scan and perfusion defect in MIBI SPECT. And there were acceptable correlations (0.05$26.2{\pm}10.8%$, severe hypokinesia, akinesia or dyskinesia in 16 regions: $78.2{\pm}23.7$, p<0.001). These data indicate there is a significant coupling between the degree of myocardial perfusion and the myocardial functional change in coronary artery disease.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.94-99
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• 2005

Electrocardiogram-gated single photon omission computed tomography (SPECT) provides valuable information in the assessment of both myocardial perfusion and ventricular function. Tl-201 is a suboptimal isotope for gating. Tl-201 images are more blurred compared with Tc-99m tracers due to the increased amount of scattered photons and use of a smooth filter. The average myocardial count densities are approximately one-half those of conventional technetium tracers. However, Tl-201 is still widely used because of its well-established utility for assessing myocardial perfusion, viability and risk stratification. Gated SPECT with Tl-201 enables us to assess both post-stress and rest left ventricular volume and function. Previous studies with gated Tl-201 SPECT measurements of ejection fraction (EF), end-diastolic volume (EDV), end-systolic volume (ESV) have shown high correlation with first-pass radionuclide angiography, gated blood pool scan, Tc-99m-MIBI gated SPECT, contrast ventriculography, echocardiography, and 3-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging. However, problems related to these studies include few agreement data of EDV and ESV, use of a reference method that is likely to have the same systemic errors (gated Tc-99m-MIBI SPECT), and other technical factors related to the count density of gated SPECT. With optimization of gated imaging protocols and more validation studies, gated Tl-201 SPECT would be an accurate method to provide perfusion and function information in patients with coronary artery disease.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.40-48
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• 1999

Purpose: The sensitivity of ST-depression in the electrocardiogram during exercise is influenced by the level of efforts. However, unlike the prevalence of ST-depression on exercise ECG, the degree of exercise is reported to do not influence the diagnostic ability of myocardial perfusion scan. Furthermore, the relation between the prevalence of myocardial ischemia and effort is still controversial. We evaluated the effect of the degree of exercise on the ability of SPECT imaging to detect coronary artery stenosis. Materials and Methods: The patient population was comprised of 111 patients (73 men and 38 women, mean age 56 years) who underwent an exercise test in conjunction with Tc-99m MIBI and cardiac catheterization within 3 months apart each other. The degree of exercise was classified into four groups according to the percentage of maximal predicted heart rate. The sensitivity and specificity was compared between each group. Results: The overall diagnostic sensitivity was significantly higher with Tc-99m MIBI SPECT than exercise ECG. The specificity was not significantly different between two tests. Sensitivity and specificity of Tc-99m MIBI was not different between four groups. Sensitivity for individual coronary stenosis seemed to be lower in subjects who had premature termination of exercise due to early appearance of ST depression. Conclusion: These results suggest that the overall diagnostic sensitivity of Tc-99m MIBI myocardial perfusion SPECT is not significantly affected by the degree of exercise in stable patients undergoing symptom-limited treadmill exercise testing. Myocardial perfusion SPECT imaging should be added to routine exercise stress testing for the detection of coronary artery disease.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.83-93
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• 2003

Background: Lung-to-heart uptake ratio (LHR) in $^{201}Tl-chloride$ myocardial perfusion scan is believed to be a reliable marker for left ventricular (LV) dysfunction, but the clinical value of LHR is controversial for $^{99m}Tc-MIBI$ imaging. Furthermore, most of results suggesting lung uptake of $^{99m}Tc-MIBI$ as a potential marker for LV dysfunction used immediate post-stress images, instead of routine images acquired 1 hour after tracer injection. The goal of our study was to investigate whether LHR evaluated with routine gated $^{99m}Tc-MIBI$ imaging can reflect the degree of perfusion defect or left ventricular performance. Subjects and Methods: 241 patients underwent exercise $^{99m}Tc-MIBI$ myocardial SPECT were classified into normal myocardial perfusion (NP, n=135) and abnormal myocardial perfusion (AP, n=106) group according to the presence of perfusion defect. LHR was calculated from anterior projection image taken at 1-hour after injection. Two legions of interest (ROIs) were placed on left lung above LV and on myocardium showing the highest radioactivity. Subjects were classified by left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), as Gr-I: >50%, Gr-II: 36-50%, Gr-III: <36% and by summed stress score (SSS), as Gr-A: <4, Gr-B: 4-8, Gr-C: 9-13, Gr-D: >13, LHR was compared among these groups. Results: In NP group(n=135), LHR, were higher in men than women ($men:\;0.311{\pm}0.03,\;women:\;0.296{\pm}0.03,\;p<0.05$). Significant difference, in LHR were found between NP and AP groups both for men and women ($men:\;0.311{\pm}0.03\;vs\;.\;0.331{\pm}0.06,\;women:\;0.296{\pm}0.03\;vs.\;0.321{\pm}0.07.\;p<0.05$). There were weak negative correlation between LHR and LVEF (r=-0.342, p<0.05) and weak positive correlation between LHR and SSS (r=0.478, p<0.05) in men, but not in women (LVEF: r=-0.279, p=0.100, SSS: r=0.276, p=0.103). Increased LHR was defined when for more than mean + 2SD value ($men{\geq}0.38,\;women{\geq}0.37$) of the LHR of the subject with normal perfusion. Increased LHR were observed more frequently in subjects with lower LVEF (Gr-I: 11.1%, Gr-II: 27.0%, Gr-III: 35.4%, p<0.05) and higher SSS(Gr-A: 14.0%, Gr-B: 5.7%, Gr-C: 18.2%, Gr-D: 40.7%, p<0.05). Conclusions: LHRs obtained from routine $^{99m}Tc-MIBI$ gated SPECT images were weakly correlated with LVEF and perfusion defect. Although significant overlaps were observed between normal and abnormal perfusion group, LHRs could be used as an indirect marker of severe perfusion defect or reduced left ventricular function.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.210-217
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• 1993

To compare the myocardial viability in patients suffering from total occlusion of the right coronry artery (RCA) with the angiographic collaterals, intracoronary injection of Thallium-201 (T1-201) was done to 14 coronary artery disease (CAD) patients (pts) with total occlusion of RCA and into four normal subjects for control. All 14 CAD pts had Grade 2 or 3 collateral circulations. There were 14 male and 4 females, and their ages ranged from 31 to 70 years. In nine pts, T1-201 was injected into left main coronary artery (LCA) ($300{\sim}350{\mu}Ci$) to evaluate the myocardial viability of RCA territory through collateral circulations. The remaining five pts received T1-201 into RCA ($200{\sim}250{\mu}Ci$) because two had intraarterial bridging collaterals and three had previous successful PTCA. Planar & SPECT myocardial perfusion images were obtained 30 minutes, and four to five hours after T1-201 injection. Intravenous T1-201 reinjection (six pts) or $^{99m}Tc-MIBI$ (two pts) were also performed in eight CAD pts. Intracoronary myocardial perfusion images were compared with intravenous T1-201 (IV T1-201) images, ECG, and ventriculography. Intracoronary T1-201 images proved to be superior to that of IV T1-201 due to better myocardial to background uptake ratio and more effective in the detection of viable tissue. We also found that perfusion defects were smaller on intracoronary T1-201 images than those on the IV T1-201. All of the 14 CAD pts had either mostly viable myocardium (seven pts) or large area of T1-201 perfusion (seven pts) in RCA territory, however ventriculographic wall motion and ECG did not correlate well with intracoronary myocardial perfusion images. In conclusion, total RCA occlusion patients with well developed collateral circulation had large area of viable myocardial in the corresponding territory.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.122-126
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• 2014

Purpose: The new reconstruction algorithms (NRA) provided by vendor aim to shorten the acquisition scan time. Whereas depending on the installed version AutoQuant program used for myocardial SPECT quantitative analysis did not contain the normal data that NRA is applied. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to compare the results according to AutoQuant versions in myocardial SPECT applied NRA and half-time scan (HT). Materials and Methods: Rest Tl and stress MIBI data of total 80 (40 men, 40 women) patients were gathered. Data were applied HT acquisition and ASTONISH (Philips) software which is NRA. Modified autoquant of SNUH and old version of AutoQuant (full-time scan) provided by company were compared. Comparison groups were classified as coronary artery disease (CAD), 24 hrs delay and almost normal patients who have a simple pain patient. Perfusion distribution aspect, summed stress score (SSS), summed rest score (SRS), extent and total perfusion deficit (TPD) of each 25 patient who have above diseases were compared and evaluated. Results: The case of CAD, when using re-edited AutoQuant (HT) SSS and SRS showed about 30% reduction (P<0.0001), Extent showed about 38% reduction and TPD showed about 30% reduction in the tendency (P<0.0001). In the score of the perfusion, especially on the part of infero-medium, infero-apical, lateral-medium and lateral-apical regions were the biggest change. The case of the 24 hrs delay patient SRS (P=0.042), Extent (P=0.018) and TPD (P=0.0024) showed about 13-18% reduction. And the case of simple pain patient, comparison of 4 results showed about 5-7% reduction. Conclusion: This study was started based on expectation that results could be affected by normal patient data. Normal patient data is possible to change by race and gender. It was proved that combination of new reconstruction algorithm for reducing scan time and analysis program according to scan protocol with NRA could also be affected to results. Clinical usefulness of gated myocardial SPECT is possibly increased if each hospital properly collects normal patient data for their scan acquisition protocol.