PERFUSION PULMONARY TOMOSCINTIGRAPHY IN P ULMONARY-EMBOLISM PRELIMINARY-STUDY

Tomoscintigraphy, a method developed over 10 years ago, is little used nowadays for the evaluation of suspected pulmonary embolism. The auth ors report the results of a preliminary study of 10 patients hospitali sed for this condition. Tomoscintigraphy was normal in 2 cases and abn ormal in 8 cases. Seven of these 8 patients underwent pulmonary angiog raphy which confirmed the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism in 6 cases. The small number of patients, however, did not allow measurement of th e sensitivity and specificity. Tomoscintigraphy, repeated at the 8th d ay and at the first month, provides an assessment of therapeutic effic acy. Some improvement is observed in all cases from the first control but the amount varies from one subject to another. At one month, 3 of the 6 patients undergoing control tomoscintigraphy had hypoperfusion s equellae. The simplicity of pulmonary tomoscintigraphy makes it a usef ul investigation for emergency diagnosis and follow-up pulmonary embol ism.