Abstract
Purpose
This is the second of a series of surveys designed to assess myocardial perfusion scintigraphy (MPS) practice in Europe.
Methods
Data were collected from 258 centres in 18 countries. The number of MPS studies per million population (pmp) was estimated assuming that the nonresponding centres performed either no studies (lower estimate) or the same number as the responding centres (upper estimate).
Results
The responding centres served 24% of the population of their countries. The total number of noncardiac nuclear medicine studies was between 2,160 and 8,000 studies pmp. The total number of MPS studies was between 529 and 2,293 pmp. The median number of MPS studies per centre was 571 per year with 57% performing fewer than 500 studies per year and 23% of centres performing fewer than 250 studies per year. There was significant variation between countries, with higher numbers of MPS studies (lower limit of estimate above the mid-range of all countries combined) in Austria, Denmark, Hungary, Portugal and Slovenia, and lower numbers (upper limit of estimate below the mid-range of all countries) in Finland, Norway, Spain and Switzerland. The ratio of MPS to coronary angiography to revascularization procedures was 0.9 to 2.2 to 1. Pharmacological stress was used in 57% and technetium-99m-labelled tracers in 88% of studies. ECG gating was performed in 74% of studies and attenuation correction in 22%.
Conclusion
MPS utilization in Europe remains low compared with coronary angiography although there has been a 21% increase in the number of studies pmp in centres that reported in both 2005 and 2007. Pharmacological agents continue to be the predominant form of stress. Despite the widespread use of technetium-99m-labelled tracers, ECG gating is not universally performed. As in the 2005 survey, imaging aids such as attenuation and motion correction and prone imaging are not commonly used.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Underwood SR, Anagnostopoulos C, Cerqueira M, Ell PJ, Flint J, Harbinson M, et al. Myocardial perfusion scintigraphy: the evidence. Eur J Nucl Med. 2004;31:261–91.
National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence. Myocardial perfusion scintigraphy for the diagnosis and management of angina and myocardial infarction. Technology appraisal 73, November 2003. http://www.nice.nhs.uk/ta073. Accessed 25 Aug 2011.
Underwood SR, Wiener S. Myocardial perfusion scintigraphy in Europe 2005. A survey of the European Council on Nuclear Cardiology. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2009;36:260–8.
Gholamrezanezhad A, Mirpour S, Mariani G. Future of nuclear medicine: SPECT versus PET. J Nucl Med. 2009;50:16N–8N.
Lindner O, Burchert W, Bengel FM, Zimmermann R, vom Dahl J, Schäfers M. Myocardial perfusion scintigraphy in Germany in 2009: utilization and state of the practice. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2011;38:1485–92.
Anagnostopoulos C, Harbinson M, Kelion A, Kundley K, Loong CY, Notghi A, et al. Procedure guidelines for radionuclide myocardial perfusion imaging. Heart. 2004;90:i1–i10.
Hesse B, Tägil K, Cuocolo A, Anagnostopoulos C, Bardiés M, Bax JJ, et al. EANM/ESC procedural guidelines for myocardial perfusion imaging in nuclear cardiology. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2005;32:855–97.
American Society of Nuclear Cardiology. ASNC imaging guidelines for nuclear cardiology procedures. http://www.asnc.org/section_73.cfm. Accessed 25 Aug 2011
Prvulovich EM, Jarritt PH, Vivian GC, Clarke SE, Pennell DJ, Underwood SR. Quality assurance in myocardial perfusion tomography: a collaborative BNCS/BNMS audit programme. Nucl Med Commun. 1998;19:831–8.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the staff of the centres that returned information and, in particular, we thank the national coordinators for helping to maximize returns (P. Aramugam, I. Balogh, P. de Bont, G. Cantinho, L. Edenbrandt, P. Georgoulias, S. Graf, M. Kamínek, G. Kravdal, D. Le Guludec, O. Lindner, C. Marcassa, M. Milcinski, A. Muxi, S. Nielsen, J. Prior, H. Ukkonen, G. Zettinig). We thank Bristol Myers Squibb Medical Imaging, Cardiovascular Therapeutics Inc, CIS Bio International, Covidien Pharmaceuticals, GE Healthcare, Philips Medical Systems and Siemens Medical Solutions for unrestricted grants.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Consortia
Corresponding author
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
ESM 1
(DOC 47 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Reyes, E., Wiener, S., Underwood, S.R. et al. Myocardial perfusion scintigraphy in Europe 2007: a survey of the European Council of Nuclear Cardiology. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 39, 160–164 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-011-1923-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-011-1923-9