The clinical performance of the Duke Endocarditis Service criteria to establish the diagnosis of infectious endocarditis (IE) can be improved through functional imaging procedures such as radiolabeled leukocytes ( 99m Tc-hexamethylpropyleneamine oxime [HMPAO]-labeled white blood cells [WBC]). Methods: We assessed the value of 99m Tc-HMPAO-WBC scintigraphy including SPECT/CT acquisitions in a series of 131 consecutive patients with suspected IE. Patients with permanent cardiac devices were excluded. 99m Tc-HMPAO-WBC scintigraphy results were correlated with transthoracic or transesophageal echocardiography, blood cultures, and the Duke criteria. Results: Scintigraphy was true-positive in 46 of 51 and false-negative in 5 of 51 cases (90% sensitivity, 94% negative predictive value, and 100% specificity and positive predictive value). No false-positive results were found, even in patients with early IE evaluated within the first 2 mo from the surgical procedure. In 24 of 51 patients with IE, we also found extracardiac uptake, indicating septic embolism in 21 of 24. Despite the fact that septic embolism was found in 11 of 18 cases of Duke-definite IE, most of the added value from the 99m Tc-HMPAO-WBC scan for decision making was seen in patients in whom the Duke criteria yielded possible IE. The scan was particularly valuable in patients with negative or difficult-to-interpret echocardiographic findings because it correctly classified 11 of 88 of these patients as having IE. Furthermore, 3 patients were falsely positive at echocardiography but correctly negative at 99m Tc-HMPAO-WBC scintigraphy: these patients had marantic vegetations. Conclusion: Our results demonstrate the ability of 99m Tc-HMPAO-WBC scintigraphy to reduce the rate of misdiagnosed cases of IE when combined with standard diagnostic tests in several situations: when clinical suspicion is high but echocardiographic findings are inconclusive; when there is a need for differential diagnosis between septic and sterile vegetations detected at echocardiography; when echocardiographic, laboratory, and clinical data are contradictory; and when valve involvement (especially of a prosthetic valve) needs to be excluded during febrile episodes, sepsis, or postsurgical infections.

(99m)Tc-HMPAO-WBC scintigraphy enabled the confirmation of the presence of CIED-associated infection, definition of the extent of device involvement, and detection of associated complications. Moreover, (99m)Tc-HMPAO-WBC scintigraphy reliably excluded device-associated infection during a febrile episode and sepsis, with 95% negative predictive value.

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This sequential testing is useful to non-invasively predict LVFP in patients with LV dysfunction, especially in those with preserved EF.

Dipyridamole echocardiography test (DET) has gained acceptance due to its safety, feasibility, diagnostic accuracy and prognostic power. The main limitation of the test is a less than ideal sensitivity in some patient subsets, such as those with limited coronary artery disease. Atropine with dipyridamole might theoretically combine to become a synergistic ischaemic stress test, by increasing myocardial oxygen demand through chronotropic stress and by reducing flow supply through a shortening of the diastolic interval under maximal coronary vasodilation. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of the addition of atropine to DET. Three hundred and twenty-one patients (age = 58 +/- 9 years), referred for testing in the echo lab, were initially studied by DET. Of these, 151 were stopped during or within the 2 min following dipyridamole infusion because of achievement of a predetermined end-point: obvious echocardiographic positivity (n = 137), severe chest pain (n = 3), diagnostic ST segment changes (n = 7) or limited side effects (n = 4). In another three cases, atropine was not given due to a history of glaucoma or severe prostatic hypertrophy. In the remaining 167 patients with a negative DET test, atropine (0.25 mg intravenously, repeated every min up to a maximum of 1 mg, if necessary) was added, starting 3 min after the end of the dipyridamole infusion. The dipyridamole-atropine echo test (DETA) was positive in 32 and negative in 135 patients, and no major side effects occurred in any patient.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)