Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Quantification of left ventricular size on exercise thallium-201 single-photon emission tomography

  • Original Article
  • Published:
European Journal of Nuclear Medicine Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The purposes of this study were to determine whether quantification of the left ventricular size on exercise thallium-201 single-photon emission tomography (SPET) correlates with echocardiographic measurements, whether the quantification reflects the severity of coronary artery disease, and whether it can provide supplementary information regarding the severity of coronary artery disease. In 42 control subjects and 110 patients who underwent coronary angiography, we performed exercise201Tl SPET and quantified six non-regional markers: lung201Tl uptake on an initial planar image (Lung/Heart), left ventricular width on a tomogram (Width), change in the Width from the initial to delayed tomograms (ΔWidth), count ratio of the left ventricular cavity to the myocardium (C/M), count ratio of the lung to the myocardium (UM), and count ratio of the lung to the left ventricular cavity (L/C). In 76 patients, furthermore, the Width was compared with echocardiographic measurements. The Width correlated with echocardiographic measurements (P<0.001). The Width and ΔWidth were significantly different among zero-, one-, two- and three-vessel disease (P<0.001). However, the Width and ΔWidth could not improve the power of discrimination for multi-vessel disease derived from the Lung/Heart. The six non-regional markers correlated with each other (P<0.001). Among the six markers, the Lung/Heart was only the independent discriminator for multi-vessel disease. In conclusion, quantification of the left ventricular size on exercise201Tl SPET correlated with echocardiographic measurements and reflected the severity of coronary artery disease, but may be replaced with quantitation of the lung201Tl uptake.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Stolzenberg J. Dilation of the left ventricular cavity on stress thallium scan as an indicator of ischemic disease.Clin Nucl Med 1980; 5: 289–291.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Canhasi B, Dae M, Botvinick E, et al. Interaction of “supplementary” scintigraphic indicators of ischemia and stress electrocardiography in the diagnosis of multivessel coronary disease.J Am Coll Cardiol 1985; 6: 581–588.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Weiss AT, Berman DS, Lew AS, et al. Transient ischemic dilation of the left ventricle on stress thallium-201 scintigraphy: a marker of severe and extensive coronary artery disease.J Am Coll Cardiol 1987; 9: 752–759.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Iskandrian AS, Heo J, Lemlek J, Ogilby JD. Identification of high-risk patients with left main and three-vessel coronary artery disease using stepwise discriminant analysis of clinical, exercise, and tomographic thallium data.Am Heart J 1993; 125: 221–225.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Travin MI, Boucher CA, Newell JB, LaRaia PJ, Flores AR, Eagle KA. Variables associated with a poor prognosis in patients with an ischemic thallium-201 exercise test.Am Heart J 1993; 125: 335–344.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Chouraqui P, Rodrigues EA, Berman DS, Maddahi J. Significance of dipyridamole-induced transient dilation of the left ventricle during thallium-201 scintigraphy in suSPETed coronary artery disease.AM J Cardiol 1990; 66: 689–694.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Lette J, Lapointe J, Waters D, Cerino M, Picard M, Gagnon A. Transient left ventricular cavity dilation during dipyridamolethallium imaging as an indicator of severe coronary artery disease.Am J Cardiol 1990; 66: 1163–1170.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Takeishi Y, Tono-oka I, Ikeda K, Komatani A, Tsuiki K, Yasui S. Dilatation of the left ventricular cavity on dipyridamole thallium-201 imaging: a new marker of triple-vessel disease.Am Heart J 1991; 121: 466–475.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Seo H, Doi YL, Yonezawa Y, Chikamori T, Yamada M, Ozawa T. Diagnostic value of transient dilatation of the left ventricle in negative dipyridamole-thallium imaging.Jpn Circ J 1994; 58: 206–213.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Iskandrian AS, Heo J, Nguyen T, Lyons E, Paugh E. Left ventricular dilatation and pulmonary thallium uptake after singlephoton emission computed tomography using thallium-201 during adenosine-induced coronary hyperemia.Am J Cardiol 1990; 66: 807–811.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Gill JB, Ruddy TD, Newell JB, Finkelstein DM, Strauss HW, Boucher CA. Prognostic importance of thallium uptake by the lungs during exercise in coronary artery disease.N Engl J Med 1987; 317: 1485–1489.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Kaul S, Lilly DR, Gascho JA, et al. Prognostic utility of the exercise thallium-201 test in ambulatory patients with chest pain: comparison with cardiac catheterization.Circulation 1988; 77: 745–758.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Kurata C, Tawarahara K, Taguchi T, Sakata K, Yamazaki N, Naitoh Y. Lung thallium-201 uptake during exercise emission computed tomography.J Nucl Med 1991; 32: 417–423.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Roberti RR, Van Tosh A, Baruchin MA, et al. Left ventricular cavity-to-myocardial count ratio: a new parameter for detecting resting left ventricular dysfunction directly from tomographic thallium perfusion scintigraphy.J Nucl Med 1993; 34: 193–198.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Kurata C, Sakata K, Taguchi T, Kobayashi A, Yamazaki N. Exercise-induced silent myocardial ischemia: evaluation by thallium-201 emission computed tomography.Am Heart J 1990; 119: 557–567.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Sahn DJ, DeMaria A, Kisslo J, Weyman A. Recommendation regarding quantitation in M-mode echocardiography: results of a survey of echocardiographic measurements.Circulation 1978; 58: 1072–1083.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Civelek AC, Shafique I, Brinker JA, et al. Reduced left ventricular cavity activity (“black hole sign”) in thallium-201 SPET perfusion images of anteroapical transmural myocardial infarction.Am J Cardiol 1991; 68: 1132–1137.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Van Tosh A, Hecht S, Berger M, Roberti R, Luna E, Horowitz SF. Exercise echocardiographic correlates of transient dilatation of the left ventricular cavity on exercise thallium-201 SPET imaging.Chest 1994; 106: 1725–1729.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Kurata, C., Wakabayashi, Y., Shouda, S. et al. Quantification of left ventricular size on exercise thallium-201 single-photon emission tomography. Eur J Nucl Med 23, 762–767 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00843704

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00843704

Key words

Navigation