Perfusion Scanning Helpful in the Early Prediction of Cardiac Events $BlogItemSubject"; $newslink[$countera]="http://www.medjournal.com/blog/archives/2002_11_01_nucmedarchive.php#85660819"; ?>
This study looked at 80 patients with acute chest pain. Tests obtained included the nuclear perfusion scan (MIBI), troponin I (TnI), troponin T (TnT), c-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF), electrocardiogram (ECG), creatine kinase, and creatine kinase MB. The negative predictive values of the MIBI, TnT, TnI, and ECG were 97%, 97%, 95%, and 97% respectively. Only the MIBI test had a high negative predictive value (86%) for subsequent events (death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, or revascularization) duing the 4 month follow-up period. Comment: this study suggests that even if an acute myocardial infarction is ruled out using the ECG and biochemical markers, that a nuclear perfusion scan is still helpful in predicting future events. [ J Nucl Cardiol 2002;9:491-9 ]  posted at 5:46 PM by Tom Heston, MD