Itti Emmanuel, Nguyen Séverine, Robin Fabrice, Desarnaud Serge, Rosso Jean, Harf Alain, Meignan Michel
Department of Nuclear Medicine, Henri Mondor Hospital, Paris XII University, Créteil, France.
J Nucl Med. 2002 Dec;43(12):1596-602.
Diagnosis of pulmonary embolism (PE) by visual interpretation of ventilation/perfusion (V/Q) scans is limited by the high percentages of patients classified in the intermediate- and low-probability categories. This study proposes a quantitative analysis of the distribution of V/Q ratios to better identify patients with PE.
We studied 99 consecutive patients who underwent dual-isotope (81m)Kr/(99m)Tc-macroaggregate V/Q scanning and arterial blood gas analysis within 48 h. The 8-view V/Q scans were visually analyzed by 2 observers according to the revised criteria of the Prospective Investigation of Pulmonary Embolism Diagnosis (PIOPED) (normal scan or low, intermediate, or high probability of PE). Quantitative analysis of the posterior-view distribution histogram of V/Q ratios was performed using dedicated software. Briefly, regions of interest were drawn around the lungs on the matched V/Q images, smooth filtering was applied, normalized regional V/Q ratios were calculated within each pixel, and a distribution histogram was built.
Patients with normal scans (n = 16) had a predominance of V/Q ratios (63.3% +/- 13.0%) between 0.8 and 1.2. They had only 9.8% +/- 5.8% of ratios > 1.2, and the remaining 26.9% +/- 7.5% of ratios were <0.8. By contrast, patients with PE (n = 34) were characterized by a significant increase (15.5 +/- 10.0%, P = 0.04) in high V/Q ratios (>1.2) and a significant increase (34.5% +/- 8.2%, P = 0.003) in low V/Q ratios (<0.8). Interestingly, a similar pattern was found in patients with a high PIOPED probability of PE, 21.3% +/- 11.0% and 37.5% +/- 9.2%, respectively. Within the nondiagnostic group (intermediate- + low-probability scans, n = 58), 17 patients were finally diagnosed with PE. Analysis of the distribution histogram in this group allowed the identification of 5 patients with PE (specificity, 78%).
A quantitative approach to lung scan interpretation, based on the distribution histogram of V/Q ratios, may be helpful for categorizing patients with suspected PE.
通过通气/灌注（V/Q）扫描的视觉解读来诊断肺栓塞（PE）受到限制，因为被归类为中、低概率类别的患者比例很高。本研究提出对V/Q比值分布进行定量分析，以更好地识别PE患者。
我们研究了99例连续患者，他们在48小时内接受了双同位素（81m）氪/（99m）锝-大聚合体V/Q扫描和动脉血气分析。两名观察者根据肺栓塞诊断前瞻性研究（PIOPED）的修订标准对8个视角的V/Q扫描进行了视觉分析（正常扫描或PE的低、中、高概率）。使用专用软件对V/Q比值的后视图分布直方图进行了定量分析。简要地说，在匹配的V/Q图像上围绕肺部绘制感兴趣区域，应用平滑滤波，计算每个像素内的归一化区域V/Q比值，并构建分布直方图。
扫描正常的患者（n = 16）的V/Q比值主要在0.8至1.2之间（6
