LEFT-VENTRICULAR CAVITY SIZE DETERMINED BY PREOPERATIVE DIPYRIDAMOLE-THALLIUM SCINTIGRAPHY AS A PREDICTOR OF LATE CARDIAC EVENTS IN VASCULAR-SURGERY PATIENTS
G. Emlein et al., LEFT-VENTRICULAR CAVITY SIZE DETERMINED BY PREOPERATIVE DIPYRIDAMOLE-THALLIUM SCINTIGRAPHY AS A PREDICTOR OF LATE CARDIAC EVENTS IN VASCULAR-SURGERY PATIENTS, The American heart journal, 131(5), 1996, pp. 907-914
We hypothesized that left ventricular (LV) cavity size measured on dip
yridamole thallium scintigraphy identifies patients at risk for late n
onfatal myocardial infarction and cardiovascular death. Accordingly, w
e retrospectively evaluated the predictive value of clinical and scint
igraphic variables, including transendocardial LV cavity measurement p
erformed on formatted images, in 335 vascular surgery patients. A nonh
omogeneous perfusion pattern and enlarged LV cavity size were the most
significant predictors of late events, and the interaction between th
ese two variables was more predictive than was either variable alone.
Life-table analysis demonstrated that patients with normal perfusion p
atterns had the lowest incidence of late events regardless of cavity s
ize (p < 0.0005). Conversely, patients with a non-homogeneous perfusio
n pattern and the largest LV cavity measurements were at the highest r
isk for late cardiac events (p < 0.0001). Therefore, this study demons
trated that a measurement of LV scintigraphic cavity size can provide
important risk stratification for late cardiac events.