ABSTRACT
Sixty patients were studied with ventilation-perfusion (V-P) lung scans for suspected bronchiectasis. Bronchography showed bronchiectatic changes in 51 patients. Lobar and segmental matched defects were seen on V-P scans in 53 patients, of which only 46 were true positives (sensitivity 90%). V-P lung scans showed the site and extent of bronchiectatic lesions; 48 (72.7%) in the left lung and 18 (27.3%) in the right lung. Detection of associated chronic obstructive airway disease by V-P scans in 17 patients had prognostic value in postsurgery recovery time and improvement of symptoms. This may be a potential new application to the routine use of V-P lung scan in the presurgery work-up of patients with bronchiectasis. Our results showed that bronchography should not be performed on patients with preserved lung perfusion.
Subject(s)
Bronchiectasis/diagnostic imaging , Lung Diseases, Obstructive/diagnostic imaging , Lung/diagnostic imaging , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Bronchiectasis/complications , Bronchiectasis/epidemiology , Child , Female , Humans , Lung Diseases, Obstructive/complications , Lung Diseases, Obstructive/epidemiology , Male , Middle Aged , Predictive Value of Tests , Preoperative Care , Prognosis , Radionuclide Imaging , Sensitivity and Specificity , Ventilation-Perfusion RatioABSTRACT
The role of radionuclide techniques in the investigation of thromboembolic disease has been re-evaluated. Forty-eight patients suspected of having embolic lung disease (PE) or deep venous thrombosis (DVT) were studied prospectively and investigated with radionuclide venography and ventilation/perfusion lung scintigraphy. Thirty-two also underwent contrast venography and peripheral 99Tcm-labelled red blood cell scintigraphy. Both radionuclide techniques were compared to each other and against the 'gold-standard'. The overall agreement and disagreement rates were 89 and 11% for radionuclide venography and 88 and 12% for radionuclide blood pool venography. The overall sensitivity and specificity were 90 and 73% for radionuclide venography and 88 and 82% for radionuclide blood pool venography. The blood pool technique did not perform better than radionuclide venography which was valuable in the detection of DVT and confirmation of PE. Radionuclide venography appears useful especially in patients suspected of having PE and DVT.
