Thallium myocardial perfusion scans for the assessment of right ventricular hypertrophy in patients with cystic fibrosis. A comparison with other noninvasive techniques.

The incidence of right ventricular hypertrophy in 32 patients with cystic fibrosis was studied using thallium 201 (TI-201) myocardial perfusion scans, and compared with other noninvasive techniques including electrocardiography, vectorcardiography, and M-mode echocardiography. The patients (mean age, 17.3 yr; range, 7 to 33) had a wide range of clinical and pulmonary abnormalities (mean Shwachman-Kulczycki score, 66.6). In the total study group, TI-201 scans, like the vectorcardiograms and the M-mode echocardiograms, gave a surprisingly high proportion of positive predictions for right ventricular hypertrophy (RVH) (44%). The correlations with all other noninvasive methods were uniformly poor, so caution must be exercised in using this technique to predict early RVH in order to follow the natural history of cor pulmonale in cystic fibrosis. At the time of the study, 6 patients had clinical evidence of right ventricular failure, and in this disease setting must have had RVH. In 3 patients, RVH was confirmed at autopsy, and it was successfully predicted by TI-201 scans in 5 of the 6 patients. The false negative scan may have been due to regional myocardial ischemia secondary to severe right ventricular failure. In contrast, the vectorcardiogram, using Fowler's new criteria, made a successful prediction of RVH in all 6 patients, and the electro cardiogram in only 3. Although the M-mode echocardiogram was abnormal in all patients, it would have predicted RVH (with increased right ventricular anterior wall thickness) in only 1 patient. We concluded that TI-201 myocardial perfusion cans are good at confirming RVH in cases with established right ventricular failure, but have no advantage over vectorcardiographic assessments, which are logistically easier to perform and carry no radiation risks.