INTRODUCTION: Normal stress myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) carries a favourable prognosis. Conversely, elevated coronary artery calcium (CAC) is associated with increased major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE). There is limited information on the prognosis and management of patients with elevated CAC and normal MPI. We aimed to assess the outcomes of patients with elevated CAC and normal MPI in relation to post-MPI statin use. METHODS: A retrospective review of normal MPI with CAC score >300 was performed between 1 March 2016 and 31 January 2017 in a Singapore tertiary hospital. Patients with known atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease or left ventricular ejection fraction <50% on MPI were excluded. Patient demographics, prescriptions and MACE (cardiac death, nonfatal myocardial infarction and/or ischaemic stroke) at 24 months after MPI were traced using electronic records. Binary logistic regression was used to evaluate for independent predictors of MACE. RESULTS: We included 311 patients (median age 71 years, 56.3% male), of whom 65.0% were on moderate to high-intensity statins (MHIS) after MPI. MACE was significantly lower in the post-MPI MHIS group (3.5% vs. 9.2%, P = 0.035). On univariate binary logistic regression, post-MPI MHIS use was the only significant predictor for MACE (odds ratio [OR] 0.355 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.131-0.962], P = 0.042), even after multivariate adjustment (adjusted OR 0.363, 95% confidence interval 0.134-0.984, P = 0.046). CONCLUSION Post-MPI MHIS use is associated with lower MACE and is an independent negative predictor for 24-month MACE among patients with normal MPI and CAC >300.
Humans ; Male ; Aged ; Female ; Coronary Artery Disease ; Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors ; Myocardial Perfusion Imaging/methods* ; Calcium ; Stroke Volume ; Brain Ischemia ; Risk Factors ; Ventricular Function, Left ; Stroke ; Prognosis

Objective: To investigate the diagnostic efficiency and incremental value of quantitative myocardial blood flow measurements by Cadmium-Zine-Telluride (CZT) single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) dynamic myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) compared with traditional semi-quantitative measurements by MPI. Methods: This is a retrospective, cross-sectional study. We retrospectively analyzed clinical data of patients with suspected or known CAD, who underwent the dynamic MPI quantitative blood flow measurement of CZT SPECT in TEDA International Cardiovascular Hospital from October 2018 to December 2020. Clinical data, semi-quantitative parameters (stress score (SS), rest score (RS) and different score (DS)) and myocardial quantitative blood flow parameters (rest myocardial blood flow (rMBF), stress myocardial blood flow (sMBF) and myocardial flow reserve (MFR)) were analyzed. According to the results of coronary angiography, patients were divided into the stenosis group and the control group with coronary artery stenosis ≥50% or ≥75% as the diagnosis criteria. The differences of quantitative and semi-quantitative parameters between the two groups were compared, and the diagnostic efficacy was compared by receiver operating characteristic(ROC) curve. Results: A total of 98 patients with a mean age of (62.1±8.7) years were included in the study, including 66 males (67%). At the patient level, with the positive standard of coronary artery stenosis≥50%, the left ventricle (LV) stress MBF (LV-sMBF) ((1.36±0.45) ml·min^-1·g^-1) and LV-MFR (1.45±0.43) of the stenosis group were lower than the LV-sMBF ((2.09±0.64) ml·min^-1·g^-1) and LV-MFR (2.17±0.54) of control group; summed SS and summed DS were higher than control group (all P<0.05). With the positive standard of coronary artery stenosis ≥75%, the LV-sMBF ((1.19±0.34) ml·min^-1·g^-1) and LV-MFR (1.34±0.35) of stenosis group were lower than the LV-sMBF ((1.94±0.63) ml·min^-1·g^-1) and MFR (2.00±0.58) of control group; all semi-quantitative parameters were higher than control group (all P<0.05). At the vascular level, with coronary artery stenosis ≥50% as the diagnosis criteria, the sMBF ((1.26±0.49) ml·min^-1·g^-1) and MFR (1.35±0.46) of stenosis group were lower than the sMBF ((1.95±0.70) ml·min^-1·g^-1) and MFR (2.05±0.65) of control group; SS and DS were higher than control group (all P<0.05). With coronary artery stenosis≥75% as the diagnosis criteria, the sMBF ((1.12±0.41) ml·min^-1·g^-1) and MFR (1.25±0.38) of stenosis group were lower than the sMBF ((1.84±0.70) ml·min^-1·g^-1) and MFR (1.93±0.66) of control group; all semi-quantitative parameters were higher than control group (all P<0.05). With coronary artery stenosis≥50% as the diagnosis criteria and CAG as the reference standard, the AUC and 95%CI of myocardial quantitative blood flow parameters indicated by ROC curve for diagnosis of CAD were 0.830 (0.783-0.877). The sensitivity (86.1% vs. 61.5%), specificity (82.6% vs. 73.8%), positive predictive value (77.8% vs. 62.5%), negative predictive value (89.3% vs. 73.0%) and accuracy (84.0% vs. 68.7%) were all higher than the semi-quantitative parameters (all P<0.05). With coronary artery stenosis≥75% as the diagnosis criteria, the AUC and 95%CI of myocardial quantitative blood flow parameters indicated by ROC curve for diagnosis of CAD were 0.832(0.785-0.879). The sensitivity (89.2% vs. 67.6%), negative predictive value (95.5% vs. 86.2%) and accuracy (80.6% vs. 68.0%) were all higher than semi-quantitative parameters (all P<0.05). Conclusion: Compared with traditional SPECT MPI derived semi-quantitative parameters, diagnostic efficacy for CAD is higher using CZT SPECT quantitative myocardial blood flow parameters, this strategy thus has additional diagnostic benefits and incremental value on the diagnosis of CAD.
Aged ; Constriction, Pathologic ; Coronary Angiography ; Coronary Artery Disease/diagnostic imaging* ; Coronary Stenosis/diagnostic imaging* ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Myocardial Perfusion Imaging/methods* ; Retrospective Studies ; Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon/methods*

Myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) is valuable for the diagnosis, prognosis, and management of coronary artery disease (CAD). The most commonly used pharmacologic stress agents at present are vasodilators and adrenergic agents. However, these agents have contraindications and may cause adverse effects in some patients. Thus, other stress agents feasible for more patients are required. Higenamine (HG) is a β-adrenergic receptor agonist currently approved for clinical trials as a stress agent for myocardial infarction. It also has a promising value in MPI for the detection of CAD in preclinical and clinical studies. This review summarizes the application of HG on MPI, including its mechanism of action, stress protocol, efficacy, and safety.
Humans ; Coronary Artery Disease ; Myocardial Perfusion Imaging/methods* ; Tetrahydroisoquinolines ; Alkaloids ; Coronary Angiography/methods*

OBJECTIVE: To compare the diagnostic performance of cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) myocardial perfusion at 1.5- and 3-tesla (T) for detecting significant coronary artery disease (CAD), with invasive coronary angiography (ICA) as the reference method. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We prospectively enrolled 281 patients (age 62.4 ± 8.3 years, 193 men) with suspected or known CAD who had undergone 1.5T or 3T CMR and ICA. Two independent radiologists interpreted perfusion defects. With ICA as the reference standard, the diagnostic performance of 1.5T and 3T CMR for identifying significant CAD (≥ 50% diameter reduction of the left main and ≥ 70% diameter reduction of other epicardial arteries) was determined. RESULTS: No differences were observed in baseline characteristics or prevalence of CAD and old myocardial infarction (MI) using 1.5T (n = 135) or 3T (n = 146) systems. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) for detecting significant CAD were similar between the 1.5T (84%, 64%, 74%, 76%, and 0.75 per patient and 68%, 83%, 66%, 84%, and 0.76 per vessel) and 3T (80%, 71%, 71%, 80%, and 0.76 per patient and 75%, 86%, 64%, 91%, and 0.81 per vessel) systems. In patients with multi-vessel CAD without old MI, the sensitivity, specificity, and AUC with 3T were greater than those with 1.5T on a per-vessel basis (71% vs. 36%, 92% vs. 69%, and 0.82 vs. 0.53, respectively). CONCLUSION: 3T CMR has similar diagnostic performance to 1.5T CMR in detecting significant CAD, except for higher diagnostic performance in patients with multi-vessel CAD without old MI.
Area Under Curve ; Atherosclerosis ; Coronary Angiography ; Coronary Artery Disease* ; Coronary Vessels* ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Methods ; Myocardial Infarction ; Perfusion* ; Prevalence ; Prospective Studies ; ROC Curve ; Sensitivity and Specificity

Objective To evaluate the feasibility of a low-dose one-stop-shop cardiac CT imaging protocol with third-generation dual-source CT (DSCT). Methods Totally 23 coronary artery disease (CAD) patients were prospectively enrolled between March to September in 2016. All patients underwent an ATP stress dynamic myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) (data acquired prospectively ECG-triggered during end systole by table shuttle mode in 32 seconds) at 70 kV combined with prospectively ECG-triggered high-pitch coronary artery angiography (CCTA) on a third-generation DSCT system. Myocardial blood flow (MBF) was quantified and compared between perfusion normal and abnormal myocardial segments based on AHA-17-segment model. CCTA images were evaluated qualitatively based on SCCT-18-segment model and the effective dose(ED) was calculated. In patients with subsequent catheter coronary angiography (CCA) as reference,the diagnosis performance of MPI (for per-vessel ≥50% and ≥70% stenosis) and CCTA (for≥50% stenosis) were assessed. Results Of 23 patients who had completed the examination of ATP stress MPI plus CCTA,12 patients received follow-up CCA. At ATP stress MPI,77 segments (19.7%) in 13 patients (56.5%) had perfusion abnormalities. The MBF values of hypo-perfused myocardial segments decreased significantly compared with normal segments [(93±22)ml/(100 ml·min) vs. (147±27)ml/(100 ml·min);t=15.978,P=0.000]. At CCTA,93.9% (308/328) of the coronary segments had diagnostic image quality. With CCA as the reference standard,the per-vessel and per-segment sensitivity,specificity,and accuracy of CCTA for stenosis≥50% were 94.1%,93.5%,and 93.7% and 90.9%,97.8%,and 96.8%,and the per-vessel sensitivity,specificity and accuracy of ATP stress MPI for stenosis≥50% and ≥70% were 68.7%,100%,and 89.5% and 91.7%,100%,and 97.9%. The total ED of MPI and CCTA was (3.9±1.3) mSv [MPI:(3.5±1.2) mSv,CCTA:(0.3±0.1) mSv]. Conclusion The third-generation DSCT stress dynamic MPI at 70 kV combined with prospectively ECG-triggered high-pitch CCTA is a feasible and reliable tool for clinical diagnosis,with remarkably reduced radiation dose.
Computed Tomography Angiography ; methods ; Coronary Artery Disease ; diagnostic imaging ; Heart ; diagnostic imaging ; Humans ; Myocardial Perfusion Imaging ; Prospective Studies ; Radiation Dosage ; Sensitivity and Specificity

Adenosine is a short-acting coronary vasodilator, and it is widely used during pharmacological stress myocardial perfusion imaging. It has a well-established safety profile, and most of its side effects are known to be mild and transient. Until now, coronary vasospasm has been rarely reported as a side effect of adenosine during or after adenosine stress test. This study reports a case of coronary vasospasm which was documented on stress myocardial perfusion CT imaging during adenosine stress test.
Adenosine/*adverse effects/metabolism ; Aged ; Coronary Vasospasm/*chemically induced/pathology ; Humans ; Male ; Myocardial Perfusion Imaging/*methods ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed/*methods ; Vasodilator Agents/*adverse effects/metabolism

Herein we report about the adenosine stress perfusion MR imaging findings of a 50-year-old man who exhibited two different perfusion defects resulting from two different mechanisms after a coronary artery bypass surgery. An invasive coronary angiography confirmed that one perfusion defect at the mid-anterior wall resulted from an ischemia due to graft stenosis. However, no stenosis was detected on the graft responsible for the mid-inferior wall showing the other perfusion defect. It was assumed that the perfusion defect at the mid-inferior wall resulted from delayed perfusion owing to the long pathway of the bypass graft. The semiquantitative analysis of corrected signal-time curves supported our speculation, demonstrating that the rest-to-stress ratio index of the maximal slope of the myocardial territory in question was similar to those of normal myocardium, whereas that of myocardium with the stenotic graft showed a typical ischemic pattern. A delayed perfusion during long graft pathway in a post-bypass graft patient can mimick a true perfusion defect on myocardial stress MR imaging. Radiologists should be aware of this knowledge to avoid misinterpretation of graft and myocardial status in post bypass surgery patients.
Adenosine/diagnostic use ; Contrast Media/diagnostic use/*pharmacokinetics ; Coronary Angiography/*methods ; Coronary Artery Bypass/*methods ; Coronary Stenosis/*diagnosis ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging/*methods ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Myocardial Perfusion Imaging/methods

For the past decade, the diagnosis and treatment of coronary artery disease (CAD) has shifted from the traditional model by evaluating coronary artery stenosis with morphological imaging methods to a novel model by focusing on the detection of ischemia for risk stratification. The myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) using stress single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) has become the most commonly used stress imaging technique for the diagnosis and treatment of patients with suspected or known CAD. It has got strong supports, including those of the American College of Cardiology, American Heart Association, American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ACC/AHA/ASNC) and other numerous clinical guidelines. They all stressed that the SPECT MPI is recommended to be used as the "gate keeper" to coronary angiography in order to prevent unnecessary intervention test and save the cost. However, in China the introduction and application of nuclear cardiology was late and highly unbalanced. This leads to the lack of understanding of nuclear cardiology in some clinicians, and there often is misunderstanding on correct selection of coronary angiography, cardiac CT, CT coronary angiography and others for diagnosis and treatment of CAD which results in a trend of over-application of these traditional techniques. In this article, we will focus on the status of nuclear cardiology, including SPECT, positron emission tomography (PET) MPI in the patients with CAD for the diagnosis of ischemia, risk stratification and management decision-making, and also compare it with the traditional morphological imaging techniques. In addition, we will briefly introduce the recent advances in cardiac hybrid imaging and molecular imaging. The aim of this paper is to popularize the knowledge of nuclear cardiology, and promote the rational application of nuclear cardiology in China.
Animals ; Cardiology ; methods ; trends ; Coronary Artery Disease ; diagnosis ; Humans ; Molecular Imaging ; Myocardial Perfusion Imaging ; Nuclear Medicine ; methods ; trends ; Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon ; methods

OBJECTIVETo study the difference in prognosis for children with acute viral myocarditis induced ventricular premature beats (VPB) originating from different positions, and to study the role of 99Mtc-MIBI myocardial perfusion ECT in the prognostic evaluation of VPB.

METHODSThe clinical data of 83 children with viral myocarditis induced VPB were retrospectively studied. They were divided into four groups according to the original site of VPB, as shown by the ECG: right ventricular (RV) outflow tract, RV anterior wall and apex, left ventricular (LV) outflow tract, LV anterior wall and apex. All patients were treated with anti-viral drugs and myocardial nutritional medicine. Short-term and long term outcomes in the four groups were compared. The relationship between the results of 99Mtc-MIBI myocardial perfusion ECT and prognosis in 40 patients was observed.

RESULTSThere were no significant differences in short-term and long-term effective rates among the four groups (P>0.05). There were no differences in the ECT positive rates between the patients with VPB originating from RV and those with VPB originating from LV (P>0.05). The treatment effective rates of ECT-positive patients were higher than the treatment effective rates of ECT-negative ones (P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONSThe short-term and long-term prognosis of children with VPB originating from different positions are not significantly different. In children with viral myocarditis induced VPB, positive ECT results suggest a better prognosis.

Acute Disease ; Humans ; Myocardial Perfusion Imaging ; methods ; Myocarditis ; complications ; Prognosis ; Retrospective Studies ; Technetium Tc 99m Sestamibi ; Ventricular Premature Complexes ; diagnostic imaging ; etiology ; Virus Diseases ; complications

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to evaluate the time efficiency and diagnostic accuracy of automated myocardial computed tomography perfusion (CTP) image analysis software. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 320-row CTP was performed in 30 patients, and analyses were conducted independently by three different blinded readers by the use of two recent software releases (version 4.6 and novel version 4.71GR001, Toshiba, Tokyo, Japan). Analysis times were compared, and automated epi- and endocardial contour detection was subjectively rated in five categories (excellent, good, fair, poor and very poor). As semi-quantitative perfusion parameters, myocardial attenuation and transmural perfusion ratio (TPR) were calculated for each myocardial segment and agreement was tested by using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Conventional coronary angiography served as reference standard. RESULTS: The analysis time was significantly reduced with the novel automated software version as compared with the former release (Reader 1: 43:08 +/- 11:39 min vs. 09:47 +/- 04:51 min, Reader 2: 42:07 +/- 06:44 min vs. 09:42 +/- 02:50 min and Reader 3: 21:38 +/- 3:44 min vs. 07:34 +/- 02:12 min; p < 0.001 for all). Epi- and endocardial contour detection for the novel software was rated to be significantly better (p < 0.001) than with the former software. ICCs demonstrated strong agreement (> or = 0.75) for myocardial attenuation in 93% and for TPR in 82%. Diagnostic accuracy for the two software versions was not significantly different (p = 0.169) as compared with conventional coronary angiography. CONCLUSION: The novel automated CTP analysis software offers enhanced time efficiency with an improvement by a factor of about four, while maintaining diagnostic accuracy.
Aged ; Analysis of Variance ; Body Mass Index ; Coronary Angiography ; Coronary Artery Disease/*radiography ; *Efficiency, Organizational ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Myocardial Perfusion Imaging/*methods ; Pattern Recognition, Automated/*methods ; Prospective Studies ; Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted/*methods ; *Software ; Statistics, Nonparametric ; Time Factors ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed/*methods