RESEARCH - Myocardial ischemia in patients with primary APS: PET assessment

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Rheumatology Advance Access published online on April 10, 2008

Rheumatology, doi:10.1093/rheumatology/ken084

Myocardial ischaemia in patients with primary APS: a 13N-ammonia PET assessment

E. ánderson1,2, A. Gómez-León1, A. Vargas1, J. L. Romero2, C.

Sierra Fernández2, M. Valero2, L. García-Rojas2, A. Meave1

and M.-C. Amigo1

1Instituto Nacional de Cardiología Ignacio Chávez and 2PET-Ciclotrón

Unit, UNAM (PET-UNAM), Mexico City, México.

Abstract

Objective. Evaluate the presence and severity of myocardial ischaemia

in a population of asymptomatic patients with primary APS (PAPS) using

13N-ammonia PET.

Methods. We studied 36 patients, 18 with a diagnosis of PAPS and 18

healthy volunteers. All patients underwent a two-phase (rest–stress)

13N-ammonia PET. Myocardial perfusion images were acquired and then

analysed by two experts in the field.

Results. We found ischaemia in 7/18 asymptomatic PAPS patients

(38.8%). The anterolateral wall was the most commonly affected cardiac

territory [5/7 PAPS patients (71.4%)]. In a severity analysis, we

found that five patients (71.4%) had mild ischaemia, one patient

(14.2%) had moderate ischaemia and another one (14.2%) had severe

defects. All the healthy volunteers studied showed normal myocardial

perfusion images.

Conclusion. An important proportion of PAPS patients, even when

asymptomatic, showed myocardial perfusion defects assessed with PET.

Most of the ischaemic patients had mild defects and the anterolateral

wall was the territory mainly affected.

http://rheumatology.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/ken084v1?papetoc

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