• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 1998

Gated myocardial SPECT and attenuation correction gave birth to new insights into the pathophysiology of ischemic myocardial perfusion and function in clinical routine practice. Gated myocardial Tc-99m-compound SPECT improved diagnostic accuracy of coronary artery disease and enabled us to observe motion and thickening of myocardial walls as well as myocardial perfusion at the same time. Quantitative and qualitative assessment of myocardial performance and perfusion let us to understand the myocardial physiology in ischemia and infarction. In every patient who underwent gated perfusion SPECT, we will find ejection fraction, left ventricular volumes and regional wall motion. There are hopes to use gated TI-201 SPECT for the same purpose and to use gated SPECT for evaluation of wall motion and thickening at stress or immediate post-stress. Attenuation correction could improve diagnostic accuracy mainly by increasing normalcy ratio or performance of non-expert physicians. Both gated methods and attenuation correction improved specificity of non-expert physicians in diagnosing patients with moderate pretest likelihood. New imaging techniques will fill the desire of cardiologists to examine function and perfusion, and possibly metabolism in their clinical routine practice.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.179-195
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• 2009

Scince $^{201}$TI was introduced as a myocardial perfusion imaging agent in the early 1970s, scintigraphic evaluation of myocardial perfusion for the diagnosis of coronary artery disease is a valuable noninvasive diagnostic imaging modality. Stress radionuclide myocardial perfusion imaging is widely accepted to have high diagnostic and prognostic use in the assessment of patients with known or suspected coronary artery disease. With wise use of this nonivasive imaging technique, more patients are referred for stress perfusion imaging. Until now various protocols for stress testing and myocardial imaging were developed and used in worldwide. This article presented various protocols of stress testing and myocardial imaging for clinical use.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.75-81
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• 2005

Myocardial perfusion and function can be quantified using SPECT and PET. There was controversy over the usefulness of the correction techniques for physical artifacts, such as photon attenuation and scatter, in the quantification of myocardial perfusion using SPECT. However, the cumulated results of many investigations have leaded the consensus on the usefulness of the correction procedures to improve the accuracy and specificity of the myocardial SPECT in the assessment of coronary artery diseases. Although the clinical value of the myocardial perfusion PET has not been preyed yet, the absolute myocardial blood flow and perfusion reserve values quantified using myocardial PET are employed in many basic investigations. In this paper, the methods for the quantitative myocardial SPECT and PET will be reviewed.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.207-218
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• 2003

Myocardial perfusion imaging has been increasingly used to provide prognostic data and guidance on the choice of appropriate management of patients with known or suspected coronary artery disease. The electrocardiogram gated myocardial SPECT program is corning into wide use with an advent of $^{99m}Tc-labeled$ tracers and an improvement of SPECT machines. The gated technique permits measurement of important cardiac prognostic indicators without any further discomforts or radiation burden in patients underwent standard myocardial perfusion SPECT. In addition, gated study significantly improves diagnostic yield by reducing the number of borderline interpretations and could find myocardial stunning and viable myocardium. Gated single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging allows the automated calculation of end-diastolic volume, end-systolic volume, ejection fraction, myocardial mass and the assessment of regional wall motion and thickening, and it have dramatically improved assessment of coronary artery disease in routine nuclear practice. This allows the simultaneous assessment of both perfusion and function within the same acquisition, and serves as a cost-effective technique for providing more diagnostic data with fewer diagnostic tests. Because the diagnostic and prognostic power derived from knowledge of left ventricular function can be added to that provided by assessing myocardial perfusion, gated SPECT imaging has rapidly gained widespread acceptance and is now used on a routine clinical basis in a growing number of laboratories, including South Korea. The gated SPECT technique for measurement of left ventricular parameters has been validated against a variety of well established techniques. In this work, overview of gated myocardial perfusion SPECT focus on functional parameters is presented.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.114-117
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• 2005

As the indication of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) has expanded to the more difficult and complicated cases, frequent restenosis is still expected after PCI. According to AHA/ACC guideline of the present time, routine use of myocardial perfusion single photon emission tomography (SPECT) is not recommended after coronary intervention, but symptom itself or exercise EKG is not enough for the detection of restensis or for the prediction of event-free survival. In high risk and/or symptomatic subjects, direct coronary angiography is required myocardial perfusion SPECT could detect restenosis in 79% of the patients if performed 2 to 9 months after PCI. Reversible perfusion decrease in the myocardial perfusion SPECT is known to be the major prognostic indicator of major adrerse cardiac event in PCI patients and also the prognosis is benign in the patients without reversible perfusion decrease. Though the cumulated specificity is 79% in the literature and optimal timing of myocardial perfusion SPECT is in controversy, SPECT is recommended even in asymptomatic patients at 3 to 9 months after PCI. Considering the evidences recently reported in the literature, myocardial perfusion SPECT is useful for risk stratification and detection of coronary artery restenosis requiring re-intervention in the asymptomatic patients after PCI.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.196-202
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• 2009

Myocardial perfusion scintigraphy is currently by far the most commonly performed cardiac nuclear study, constituting approximately one third of all nuclear medicine procedure. It plays an important role in the diagnosis, prognosis, risk assessment and management of heart disease. Aim of this review is to describe recent evolution of myocardial perfusion imaging on the focus of diagnosis of coronary artery disease. In addition, current status of other imaging modalities will be reviewed.

• 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.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.207-214
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• 2009

Positron emission tomogrpahy (PET) represents the most advanced scintigraphic imaging technology. With the increase in availability of PET, the clinical use of PET has grown in medical fields. This can be employed for cardiovascular research as well as for clinical applications in patients with various cardiovascular disease. PET allows non-invasive functional assessment of myocardial perfusion, substrate metabolism and cardiac innervation and receptors as well as gene expression in vivo. PET is regarded as the gold standard for the detection of myocardial viability, and it is the only method available for the quantitative assessment of myocardial blood flow. This review focuses on the clinical applications of myocardial perfusion PET in coronary artery disease.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.104-111
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• 1996

We did Tc-99m sestamibi myocardial perfusion SPECT in 36 patients with acute myocardial infarction when they arrived at the emergency room. And we compared myocardial perfusion images with ECG findings. Then we obtained the follows. The myocardial infarction by the obstruction of left coronary descending artery and right coronary artery showed a good concordance in the diagnosis and infarction site between myocardial perfusion images and ECG findings. The 7 patients with myocardial infarction by a left circumflex coronary artery showed a perfusion defect in the lateral wall in myocardial perfusion SPECT images. But 4 patients of them showed ST segment elevation, 2 patients showed ST depression and 1 patient showed normal ECG findings. The diagnostic sensitivity of Tc-99m sestamibi myocardial perfusion SPECT was 100% by a qualified analysis. The perfusion defect site in the myocardial perfusion SPECT were corresponded with the infarct related coronary artery in 31 patients which was diagnosed by coronary angiograpy. The size of perfusion defect in the po1ar map was $31{\pm}18%(M{\pm}SD)$, in the myocardial infarction with left anterior descending coronary arery obstruction, $31{\pm}13% (M{\pm}SD)$ in the myocardial infarction with right coronary artery obstruction and $25{\pm}5.9%(M{\pm}SD)$ in the myocardial infarction with left circumflex coronary artery obstruction. We concluded that emergency myocardial perfusion SPECT images are useful in the diagnose of myocardial infarction and it's very useful when we are difficult to diagnose with ECG like as lateral wall infarction or left bundle branch block.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.609-619
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• 1989

During aortic valve surgery, cardioplegic solution is delivered through direct cannulation of both coronary ostia. Since this approach may cause an intimal injury leading to acute dissection or late ostial stenosis, this study was undertaken to evaluate myocardial protective effect of retrograde perfusion of cardioplegia [RCSP <% RRAP] in 18 clinical cases, which were compared with antegrade perfusion of cardioplegia in 27 clinical cases. This study were investigated 1] cease and return of electromechanical activity after cardioplegia infusion 2] the myocardial temperature during operation 3] the aortic cross clamping time and total bypass time 4] frequency of DC shock for defibrillation 5] need for inotropic drugs after operation 6] electrocardiographic evidence of myocardial infarction or ventricular arrhythmia after operation 7] the enzymes activity during preoperative and postoperative period as an evaluation of myocardial ischemic injury and 8] operative mortality rate The combination of retrograde cardioplegia and topical cooling with ice slush yielded promptly hypothermia of myocardium and shorter aortic cross-clamping time compared with antegrade cardioplegia [P < 0.05]. The temperature of the interventricular septum was maintained below 20oC by continuous perfusion or intermittent perfusion of cold blood cardioplegia and other results were no statistically significant difference between the two methods [P >0.05]. This technique provides clear operative field and avoids some serious complications which are caused by coronary ostial cannulation. These results suggested that the retrograde perfusion of cardioplegia is a simple, safe, and effective means of myocardial protection during open heart surgery.