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Desde 1999 no se había realizado ninguna revisión de las Guías de actuación clínica de la Sociedad Española de Cardiología en Cardiología Nuclear, por lo que en este artículo exponemos las indicaciones clase I y IIa de la American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association/American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ACC/AHA/ASNC) con nivel de evidencia A o B, junto con las 27 indicaciones consideradas adecuadas por el Comité de expertos de la American College of Cardiology Foundation/American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ACCF/ASNC) y los comentarios que hemos considerado oportuno añadir los firmantes de este artículo

Guidelines on Nuclear Cardiology have not been revised since 1999. Correspondingly, this article describes the class-I and class-IIa indications of the American College of Cardiology (ACC)/American Heart Association (AHA)/American Society for Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC), which have a grade-A or grade-B level of supporting evidence. In addition, details are given of the 27 appropriateness criteria of the American College of Cardiology Foundation (ACCF)/ASNC expert committee, along with additional comments which the authors of this review thought were appropriate to make at this time

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Although the role of nuclear cardiology is currently well consolidated, the addition of new radiotracers and modern techniques prompt us to permanently update the requirements, equipment and clinical applications of these isotopic tests. Radioisotopic drugs, instrumentation and characteristics of radionuclide tests that are presently used are explained in the first part of this text. In the second part, diagnostic and prognostic indications of these tests are presented in detail.

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Streptokinase is a thrombolytic agent used very frequently for the early treatment of acute myocardial infarction. A 35-year-old male with inferior acute myocardial infarction was admitted to the Coronary Care Unit and treated with systemic streptokinase. At the time of admission, he was a healthy male and he was not receiving any hepatotoxic agent. Six hours after thrombolysis, he developed high fever, painful hepatomegaly, jaundice and coluric urine. Leucocytosis with left deviation was observed in the hemogram and the liver function tests showed slight enzymatic elevation and hyperbilirubinemia. This condition was progressively improving and the patient was free of symptoms on the eighth day of evolution. Jaundice as secondary effect of streptokinase has been previously communicated in very few medical reports.

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INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to differentiate ischemic from nonischemic dilated cardiomyopathy with positron emission tomography. This differentiation is necessary to establish an adequate treatment, and it is often difficult with non-invasive diagnostic procedures. METHODS: Ten patients with an echocardiographic diagnosis of dilated cardiomyopathy who had undergone coronary angiography were selected. The presence or absence of angiographic coronary lesions was used to define the ischemic (n = 6) and the nonischemic group (n = 4). The ejection fraction was depressed in both groups, with no significant differences found. A perfusion study with 13N-ammonium and a metabolic imaging with 18F-florodeoxyglucose were performed on each patient. The images were quantitatively and qualitatively analysed, defining three criteria: accumulation defect (areas with activity under 50% of the maximal radioactivity), degree of heterogeneity, and match of images with both tracers. To determinate the degree of heterogeneity, nine segments on the three standard tomographic planes were studied. Based on the following heterogeneity features: irregular borders, coexisting different degrees of accumulation, and patched accumulation, a score ranging from 0 to 3 points was assigned to these segments. To analyse the radioactivity defects and the matching of studies with both tracers, the accumulation defects or the accumulating surface were outlined on a midventricular level coronal plane. RESULTS: The ischemic group has contrary to the nonischemic one, wider perfusion (0.26 +/- 0.21 vs 0.00) and metabolism defects (0.38 +/- 0.30 vs 0.06 +/- 0.09; p < 0.05). The degree of heterogeneity is significantly higher in the nonischemic group, either in perfusion (14.5 +/- 8.38 vs 2.5 +/- 1.04; p < 0.05) or in metabolism studies (15.5 +/- 3.31 vs 2.33 +/- 1.50; p < 0.005). Assigning wide defects and homogeneous accumulation to ischemic cardiomyopathy, and absence of defects and heterogeneous accumulation to nonischemic cardiomyopathy, the aetiology of the disease was identified in 9 of the 10 cases in the perfusion study and 100% of them with the metabolism imaging. CONCLUSIONS: Positron emission tomography allows to identify the aetiology of dilated cardiomyopathy, either with coronary perfusion or with myocardial glucose metabolism studies. Thus, only one of both PET studies could be used. Ischemic cardiomyopathy is characterised by wide defects and homogeneous radioactivity, and the nonischemic one by the absence of defects and heterogeneous accumulation of the tracer.

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Nuclear cardiology has progressed in the past few years to the point of obtaining a consolidated position in the management of chronic ischemic heart disease. In the first part of our, methodology and interpretation criteria of the fundamental nuclear techniques (myocardial perfusion imaging and radionuclide angiography) are reviewed. In the second part, clinical indications in diagnostic and prognostic evaluations of patients with chronic ischemic heart disease are discussed, while remembering its usefulness in myocardial viability assessment.

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INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: We studied the feasibility to identify coronary lesions of the average regional activity obtained by regions of interest displayed on the three main coronary territories from the polar map (left anterior descending artery, circumflex and right coronary artery). METHODS: In 125 patients with angiographic diagnosis of coronary artery disease, were made tomographic studies with technetium-99m isonitrile to analyze the average regional activity, in rest and stress. RESULTS: According to the stepwise logistic regression test, the stress average regional activity is significant and independent correlated with the stenosis rate (r = -0.60, -0.67 and -0.67 for left anterior descending artery, right coronary artery and circumflex). The thresholds values of the stress average regional activity (percentage of peak activity) with the best assessment of the significant lesions (> 70%) are: less than 70% for left anterior descending artery and circumflex, and less than 60% for the right coronary artery. Using those diagnostic criteria, this quantitative method has a high diagnostic accuracy: Sensitivity/specificity to identify significant lesion of: 0.86/0.93 for left anterior descending artery, 0.85/0.83 for right coronary artery and 0.80/0.90 for circumflex. Significant coincidence with the angiographic diagnosis of the number of diseased vessels (Kappa coefficient 9.62). CONCLUSION: The assessment of the stress average regional activity by circular regions of interest is an easy method, with a high diagnostic accuracy to identify diseased coronary arteries.

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