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Chinese multi-center study of lung scintigraphy and CT pulmonary angiography for the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism

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Abstract

To evaluate diagnostic value of the PISA-PED and PIOPED II criteria for lung scintigraphy and compare it with CT pulmonary angiography (CTPA) for the detection of pulmonary embolism (PE). Five hundred and forty-four consecutive patients with suspected PE were enrolled. All patients underwent lung ventilation/perfusion (V/P) scan, chest radiography, and CTPA. Two readers used the PIOPED II criteria, and 2 used the PISA-PED criteria for the interpretation of lung scintigraphy. CTPA scans were interpreted by two experienced radiologists. Lung scintigraphy and CTPA were categorized as PE present, absent or non-diagnostic. PE was present in 321 of 544 patients. Using PIOPED II criteria, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) were 85.1, 82.5, 88.1, and 78.4% respectively for V/P scan. Using PISA-PED criteria, sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV were 86.0, 81.2, 86.8, and 80.1% respectively, and none was non-diagnostic. Sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV were 81.7, 93.4, 94.9, and 77.3%, respectively for CTPA. PISA-PED interpretation has similar diagnostic accuracy to PIOPED II interpretation, does not have non-diagnostic scan, with lower cost and radiation, thus should be considered as a choice for patients with suspected PE.

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Acknowledgments

The study was supported by Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Project Y0204004040731 and D101100050010034, National Science and Technology Pillar Program in the Eleventh 5-year Plan Period, People’s Republic of China (2006BAI01A07).

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Correspondence to Wei Fang.

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He, J., Wang, F., Dai, Hj. et al. Chinese multi-center study of lung scintigraphy and CT pulmonary angiography for the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism. Int J Cardiovasc Imaging 28, 1799–1805 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10554-012-0013-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10554-012-0013-9

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