COMPARISON DIAGNOSTIC PERFORMANCE WITH VENTILATION-PERFUSION LUNG IMAGING IN DIFFERENT PATIENT POPULATIONS

PURPOSE: To determine if patient age, chest radiographic abnormalities , or history of cardiopulmonary disease or venous thromboembolism affe cted diagnostic performance with ventilation-perfusion (V-P) imaging. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyse s were performed on the final V-P imaging interpretation data obtained during the Prospective Investigation of Pulmonary Embolism Diagnosis (PIOPED) study. Diagnostic performance with V-P imaging was measured a s the area under the ROC curve. RESULTS: Overall diagnostic performanc e with V-P imaging was not substantially different in patients with va rying ages, an abnormal chest radiograph, or a history of venous throm boembolism or cardiopulmonary disease. CONCLUSION: Because diagnostic performance with V-P imaging in detection of pulmonary embolism was si milar among the patient populations examined, an abnormal chest radiog raph or history of venous thromboembolism or cardiopulmonary disease d oes not appear to adversely affect overall diagnostic performance in e valuation of acute pulmonary embolism.