The Utility of Hybrid SPECT/CT Lung Perfusion Scintigraphy in Pulmonary Embolism Diagnosis

Background: Pulmonary embolism (PE) is diagnosed either by ventilation/perfusion (V/Q) scintigraphy or pulmonary CT angiography. One of the imaging methods used in nuclear medicine is hybrid SPECT/CT scintigraphy. Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the utility of SPECT/CT(Q) scintigraphy in the diagnosis of PE and to compare SPECT/ CT(Q) with planar(Q) and SPECT(Q) methods. Methods: The study group consisted of 109 consecutive patients suspected of having PE referred for performing lung scintigraphy. The inclusion criteria were: performance of perfusion planar, SPECT and SPECT/CT scans; availability of clinical data covering a 6-month follow-up period, and D-dimer level testing. The number of eligible patients was 84. PE was reported in patients with at least 1 segmental or 2 subsegmental perfusion defects without parenchymal abnormalities on CT scans. PE was excluded when there was a normal perfusion pattern or perfusion defects were caused by lung parenchymal abnormalities or were not arranged in accordance with Received: May 11, 2015 Accepted after revision: August 14, 2015 Published online: September 30, 2015 Andrzej Mazurek Department of Nuclear Medicine Military Institute of Medicine, Szaserow 128 PL–04-141 Warsaw (Poland) E-Mail jedrus1313 @ wp.pl © 2015 S. Karger AG, Basel 0025–7931/15/0905–0393$39.50/0