• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
• /
• v.34 no.1
• /
• pp.30-38
• /
• 2000

Purpose: We investigated the role of myocardial perfusion SPECT in prediction of ventricular dilatation and the role of revascularization including thrombolytic therapy and PTCA in prevention of ventricular dilatation after an acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Materials and Methods: We performed dipyridamole stress, 4 hour redistribution, and 24 hour reinjection Tl-201 SPECT in 16 patients with AMI two to nine days after attack. Perfusion and wall motion abnormalities were quantified by perfusion index (PI) and wall motion index (WMI). Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), WMI and ventricular volume were measured within 1 week of AMI and after average of 6 months. According to serial changes of left ventricular end-diastolic volume (LVEDV), patients were divided into two groups. We compared WMI, PI and LVEF between the two groups. Relationships among degree of volume, stress-rest PI, WMI, CKMB, Q wave, LVEF and revascularization were analysed using multivariate analysis. Results: Only initial rest perfusion index was significantly different between the two groups (p<0.05). While initial LVEF, stress PI, CKMB, trial of revascularization procedure, presence of Q wave and WMI were not significantly different between the two groups. Eight of 16 patients (50%) showed LV dilatation on follow-up echocardiography. Three of 3 patients (100%) who did not undergo revascualrization procedure documented LV dilatation. And only 5 (38%) of the remaining 13 patients who underwent revascularization revealed LV dilatation. There was no difference in infarct location between the two groups. By multivariate linear regression analysis in patients only undergoing revascularization, rest perfusion index was the only significant factor. Conclusion: Myocardial perfusion SPECT performed prior to revascularization was useful in prediction of LV dilatation after an AMI. Rest perfusion index on myocardial perfusion plays as a significant predictor of left ventricular dilatation after AMI. And revascularization appears to be a valuable procedure in alleviating LV dilatation after AMI with or without viable myocardium in a limited number of patients studied retrospectively.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
• /
• v.33 no.8
• /
• pp.605-612
• /
• 2000

Background: Ischemic preconditioning enhances the tolerance of myocardium against ischemia/reperfusion injury, with the enhancement of the recovery of post-ischemic myocardial function. This study was disigned to assess whether the protective effect of ischemic preconditioning could provide one additional hour of myocardial preservation in four hour myocardial ischemia in a rate heart. Material and method: Fourty four Spargue-Dawley rats, weighing 300~450gm, were divided into four groups. Group 1(n=7) and group 3(n=12) were subjected to 30 minutes of aerobic Langendorff perfusion without ischemic preconditioning and then preserved in saline solution at 2~4$^{\circ}C$ for 4 hours and 5 respectively. Group 2(n=7) and group 4(n=18) were perfused in the same way for 20 minutes, followed by 3 minutes of global mormothermic ischemia and 10 minutes of perfusion and then preserved in the same cold saline solution for 4 hours and 5 hours respectively. Heart rate, left ventricular developed pressure(LVDP), and coronary flow were measured at 15 minutes during perfusion as baseline. Spontaneous defibrillation time was measured after reperfusion. Heart rate, LVDP, and coronary flow were also recorded at 15 minutes, 30 minutes, and 45 minutes during reperfusion. Samples of the apical left ventricular wall were studied using a transmission electron microscope. Result: Time of spontaneous defibrillation(TSD) was significantly longer in group 4 than in group 1(p<0.001), and TSD in group 1 was significantly longer in comparision to that of group 2(p<0.05). Heart rate at 45 minutes was significantly higher in group 1 than in group 4(p<0.05). Heart rate at 15 min was significantly higher in group 2 than in group 1(p<0.001) and in group 4 than in group 3(p<0.05). Left ventricular developed pressure(LVDP) at 30 minutes and 45 minutes was higher in group 1 than in group 4(p<0.01), LVDP at 45 minutes was higher in group 4 than in group 3(p<0.05). Rate-pressure product(RPP) at 30 minutes and 45 minutes was higher in group 1 than in group 4(p<0.05). RPP at 15 minutes was higher in group 2 than in group 1(p<0.01). RPP at 30 minutes and 45 minutes was higher in group 4 than in group 3(p<0.05). Group 2 showed relatively less sarcoplasmic edema and less nuclear chromatin clearance than group 1. Group 4 showed less myocardial cell damage than group 3, group 4 showed less myocardial cell damage than group 3, group 4 showed more myocardial cell edema than group 1. Conclusion: Ischemic preconditioning enhanced the recovery of postischemic myocardial function after 4 hours and 5 hours preservation. However, it was not demonstrated that ischemic preconditioning could definitely provide one additional hour of myocardial preservation in four hour myocardial ischemia in a rat heart.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
• /
• v.39 no.2
• /
• pp.69-74
• /
• 2005

Ever since it was first introduced as a method of scintigraphically measuring regional myocardial perfusion, myocardial perfusion study has been widely used in patients diagnosed or suspected with coronary artery diseases, and continuously improved upon. In addition to the technological enhancement of nuclear medicine equipments, the innovation of radiopharmaceuticals used in the cardiac exams were important contributors to such improvement. Besides the cardiac perfusion studies, new radiopharmaceuticals that visualize fat metabolism or receptors of the sympathetic nervous system have successfully been applied to clinical practice. More information can be collected before diagnosing coronary vascular disease, evaluating the patient's condition, or assessing therapeutic effects. In this review article, the clinical efficacy and characteristics of radiopharmaceutical products tailored for cardiac SPECT that are commonly used in Korea currently, plus the ones not being used yet but have proven value are briefly described.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.41-47
• /
• 1995

Tc-99m-MIBI(Sestamibi) myocardial SPECT along with T1-201 tomographic imaging has demonstrated wide application and high image qualify sufficient for the diagnosis of myocardial perfusion defect, which consequently reflects regional myocardial blood flow, The qualitative values of myocardial SPECT with Tc-99m-MIBI as well as the quantitative cases depend in some degree on the reconstruction techniques of multiple projections. Filtered backprojection(FBP) is the common standard for reconstruction rather than the complicated and time-consuming arithmetic methods. In FBP it Is known that the distribution of radioactivity in reconstructed transverse slices varies with the selected filter parameters such as cutoff frequencies and order(Butterworth case). The cutoff frequencies basically remove and decrease the true radioactive distribution and alter the pixel counts, which lead to underestimation of true counts in specific myocardial regions. In this study, we have investigated the effect of cutoff frequencies of reconstruction filter on the artifactually induced perfusion defects, which are often demonstrated near inferior and/or inferoseptal cardiac walls due to the intense hepatic uptake of Tc-99m-MIBI. A computerized method for identifying the relative degree of artifactual perfusion defect and for comparing those degrees along with the relative amount of hepatic uptake to myocardium was developed and patient images were studied to observe the quantitative degree of underestimation of myocardial perfusion, and to propose some reasonable thresh-old of cutoff frequency in the diagnosis of perfusion defect quantitatively. We concluded that from the quantitative viewpoint cutoff frequencies may be used as high as possible with the sacrifice of homogeneity of image quality, and those frequencies lower than the common 0.3 Nyquist frequency would reveal severe degradation of radio-active distribution near inferior and/or Inferoseptal myocardium when applying Butterworth or low pass filter.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.1-9
• /
• 2007

The obstacles for cardiac imaging are motion artifacts due to cardiac motion, respiration, and blood flow, and low signal due to small tissue volume of heart. To overcome these obstacles, fast imaging technique with ECG gating is utilized. Cardiac exam using MRI comprises of morphology, ventricular function, myocardial perfusion, metabolism, and coronary artery morphology. During cardiac morphology evaluation, double and triple inversion recovery techniques are used to depict myocardial fluidity and soft tissue structure such as fat tissue, respectively. By checking the first-pass enhancement of myocardium using contrast-enhanced fast gradient echo technique, myocardial blood flow can be evaluated. In addition, delayed imaging in 10 - 15 minutes can inform myocardial destruction such as chronic myocardial infarction. Ventricular function including regional and global wall motion can be checked by fast gradient echo cine imaging in quantitative way. MRI is acknowledged to be practical for integrated cardiac evaluation technique except coronary angiography. Especially delay imaging is the greatest merit of MRI in myocardial viability evaluation.

• 대한핵의학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2004.11a
• /
• pp.389.1-389.1
• /
• 2004

• Proceedings of the KSMRM Conference
• /
• 1999.11a
• /
• pp.103-103
• /
• 1999

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
• /
• v.32 no.3
• /
• pp.259-265
• /
• 1998

Purpose: We studied early rest/24 hour delay T1-201 perfusion SPECT for prediction of wall motion improvement after reperfusion in patients with acute myocardial infarction. Materials and Methods: Among 17 patients (male/female= 11/6, age: $59{\pm}13$) with acute myocardial infarction, 15 patients were treated with percutaneous transcoronary angioplasty (direct:2, delay: 11) and intravenous urokinase (2). Spontaneous resolution occurred in infarct-related arteries of 2 patients. We confirmed TIMI 3 flow of infarct-related artery after reperfusion in all patients with coronary angiography. We performed rest T1-201 perfusion SPECT less then 6 hours after reperfusion and delay T1-201 perfusion SPECT next day. T1-201 uptake was visually graded as 4 point score from normal (0) to severe defect (3). Rest T1-201 uptake ${\le}2$ or combination of rest T1-201 uptake ${\le}2$ or late reversibility were considered to be viable. Myocardial wall motion was graded as 5 point score from normal (1) to dyskinesia (5). Myocardial wall motion was considered to be improved when a segment showed an improvement ${\ge} 1$ grade in follow up echo compared with the baseline values. Results: Among 98 segments with wall motion abnormality, the severity of myocardial wall motion decrease was as follow: mild hypokinesia: 18/98 (18%), severe hypokinesia: 28/98 (29%), akinesia: 51/98 (52%), dyskinesia: 1/98 (1%). The wall motion improved in 85%. Redistribution (13%), and reverse redistribution (4%) were observed in 24 hour delay SPECT. Positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) of combination of late reversibility and rest T1-201 uptake were 99%, and 54%. PPV and NPV of rest T1-201 uptake were 100% and 52% respectively. Predictive values of combination of rest T1-201 uptake and late reversibility were not significantly different compared with predictive values of rest T1-201 uptake only. Conclusion: We conclude that early T1-201 perfusion SPECT predict myocardial wall motion improvement with excellent positive but relatively low negative predictive values in patients with acute myocardial infarction after reperfusion.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
• /
• v.27 no.1
• /
• pp.51-58
• /
• 1993

We have anlayzed the polar maps of dipyridamole stress/rest $^{99m}Tc$-MIBI SPECT and compared the quantitated perfusion defects of dipyridamole stress polar map and the findings of coronary angiography in 56 pateints with coronary artery diseases. We performed the same day dipyridamole stress-rest myocardial SPECT, reconstructed the polar maps according to Cedars-Sinai method and quantitated perfusion detects of total myocardium and the territory of each artery, comparing the polar maps of patients with normal files. Stenosis more than 50 percent was considered significant and myocardial ischemic score was calculated as summed score of percents of main coronary arteries. Positive concordance of myocardial SPECT with coronary angiography were 82.6% with left anterior descending artery (LAD), 85.7% with left circumflex artery (LCx) and 78.6% with right coronary artery (RCA). Perfusion defect of SPECT polar map and the stenosis of coronary artery showed the contingency phi of 0.55 (p<0.0001) with total atreries, 0.38 (p = 0.016) with LAD, 0.50 (p<0.0001) with LCx and 0.40 (p = 0.007) with RCA. Dipyridamole stress percent defect of polar map was correlated with myocardial ischemic score with Spearman's rho of 0.47 (p = 0.001) in total arteries, 0.48 (p=0.001) in LAD, 0.56 (p < 0.001) in LCx and 0.38 (p=0.002) in RCA. These findings revealed that defect of the dipyridamole stress myocardial $^{99m}Tc$-MIBI SPECT and the percent extent of this defect were related with significant artery stenosis of individual arteries and the degree of stenosis. We thought that we could use the defects in the polar map of dipyridamole stress $^{99m}Tc$-MIBI SPECT for the quantification of myocardiasl perfusion decrease.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
• /
• v.13 no.3
• /
• pp.67-75
• /
• 2009

Purpose: As to the analytical method of data, the various programs in which it is used for the quantitative rating of the Tl-201 myocardial perfusion SPECT are reported that there is a difference. Therefore, the measured value error of the mutual program is expected to be generated even if the quantitative analysis is made against data of the same patient. Using quantitative index that able to represent myocardial perfusion defect level, we aimed to determine correlation among three myocardial perfusion analysis programs 4DM (4DMSPECT), QPS (Quantitative Perfusion SPECT), ECT (Emory Cardiac Toolbox) that be used generally in most departments of Nuclear Medicine. Materials and Methods: We analyzed the 145 patients who were examined by Tl-201 gated myocardial perfusion SPECT in department of nuclear medicine at Asan Mediacal Center from December 1th 2008 to February 14th 2008. We sorted as normal group and abnormal group. Normal group consist of 80 patients (Male/Female=38/42, age:$65.1{\pm}9.9$) who have low possibility of cardiovascular disease. And abnormal group consist of 65 patients (Male/Female=45/20, age:$63.0{\pm}8.7$) who were diagnosed cardiovascular disease with reversible perfusion defect or fixed perfusion defect through myocardial perfusion SPECT results. Using the 4DM, QPS, and ECT programs, the total defect extent (TDE) such as LAD, LCX, RCA and the summed stress score (SSS) have been analysed for their correlations and statistical comparison with the paried t-test for the quantitative indices analysed from each group. Results: The correlation of 4DM:QPS, QPS:ECT, ECT:4DM each group result from 145 patients is 0.84, 0.86, 0.82 at SSS, 0.87, 0.84, 0.87 at TDE, and both index showed good correlation. In paired t-test and Bland-Altman analysis results showed no statistically significant difference in the comparison of QPS:ECT at the mean SSS and TDE, 4DM:QPS, ECT:4DM comparative analysis results showed statistically significant difference at SSS and TDE index. The correlation of 4DM:QPS, QPS:ECT, ECT:4DM program results from abnormal group (65 patients) is 0.72, 0.72, 0.70 at SSS and 0.77, 0.70, 0.77 at TDE and TDE and SSS has a good correlation. In abnormal group, paired t-test and Bland-Altman analysis results showed no statistically significant difference at QPS:ECT SSS (p=0.89) and TDE (p=0.23) comparison, 4DM:QPS, ECT:4DM comparative analysis results showed statistically significant difference at SSS and TDE index (p<0.01). In normal group (80 patients), paired t-test and Bland-Altman analysis results showed no statistically significant difference at QPS:ECT SSS (p=0.95) and TDE (p=0.73) comparison. And 4DM:QPS, ECT:4DM comparative analysis results showed statistically significant difference at SSS and TDE index (p<0.01). Conclusions: The perfusion defect of the Tl-201 myocardial perfusion SPECT was analyzed in not only the patient in whom it has the cardiovascular disease but also the patient in whom the possibility of the cardiovascular disease is few. In the comparison of the all group research, the mean of the TDE and SSS, 4DM was lower than QPS and ECT progrms. Each program showed good correlation and the results showed statistically significant difference. However, in this way, it is determined to be compatible about the analysis value in which the large-scale side between the programs uses each program a difference in a clinical in the Bland-Altman analyzed result in spite of the good correlation and cannot use. but, this analyzed result will be able to be usefully used as the reference material for the clinical read and is expected.