FEASIBILITY OF FIRST-PASS RADIONUCLIDE ANGIOCARDIOGRAPHY WITH A 10-MCI TECHNETIUM BOLUS USING A SINGLE-CRYSTAL DIGITAL GAMMA-CAMERA - IMPLICATIONS FOR TECHNETIUM-SESTAMIBI SINGLE-DAY PROTOCOLS

To test the feasibility of rest first-pass radionuclide angiocardiogra phy (FPRNA) using a 370-MBq (10-mCi) bolus and a single-crystal gamma camera, 40 patients underwent both FPRNA and equilibrium radionuclide angiocardiography (ERNA). Ejection fraction (EF) and regional wall mot ion (RWM) were assesed by three observers. The interobserver reproduci bility was good: the intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.97 for b oth techniques. The correlation coefficient between FPRNA and ERNA EFs ranged between 0.90 and 0.92. FPRN EFs were significantly higher (P<0 .003) by less than 5 percentage points, this difference having no clin ical implications for patient classification. The study provides argum ents as to why this difference may be explained self-attenuation rathe r than counts statistics problems. Both techniques were concordant for RWM analysis. We conclude that FPRNA with 10 mCi is a reliable tool t o assess rest left ventricular function, wich makes it possible to per form simultaneously myocardial perfusion and function assessment in a single-day protocol using a single-crystal gamma camera.