{"title":"How did the COVID-19 pandemic affect the referral patterns for SPECT myocardial perfusion? A single center experience.","authors":"Saeedeh Ataei Nakhaei, Emran Askari, Hadis Mohammadzadeh, Hesamoddin Roustaei, Farivash Karamian, Sayyed Mostafa Mostafavi, Atena Aghaei","doi":"10.22038/AOJNMB.2023.68394.1475","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>We evaluated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the number of referrals for SPECT myocardial perfusion imaging (SPECT-MPI) as well as changes in the clinical and imaging characteristics.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We respectively reviewed 1042 SPECT-MPI cases performed in a 4-month period during the COVID-19 pandemic (PAN; n=423) and compared their findings with those acquired in the same months before the pandemic (PRE; n=619).</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The number of stress SPECT-MPI studies performed during the PAN period significantly dropped compared to the number of studies carried out in the PRE period (p = 0.014). In the PRE period, the rates of patients presenting with non-anginal, atypical and typical chest pain were 31%, 25% and 19%, respectively. The figures significantly changed in the PAN period to 19%, 42%, and 11%, respectively (all p-values <0.001). Regarding the pretest probability of coronary artery disease (CAD), a significant decrease and increase were noticed in patients with high and intermediate pretest probability, respectively (PRE: 18% and 55%, PAN: 6% and 65%, p <0.001 and 0.008, respectively). Neither the rates of myocardial ischemia nor infarction differed significantly in the PRE vs. PAN study periods.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>The number of referrals dropped significantly in the PAN era. While the proportion of patients with intermediate risk for CAD being referred for SPECT-MPI increased, those with high pretest probability were less frequently referred. Image parameters were mostly comparable between the study groups in the PRE and PAN periods.</p>","PeriodicalId":8503,"journal":{"name":"Asia Oceania Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Biology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10261691/pdf/AOJNMB-02-128.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Asia Oceania Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Biology","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.22038/AOJNMB.2023.68394.1475","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"Medicine","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Objectives: We evaluated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the number of referrals for SPECT myocardial perfusion imaging (SPECT-MPI) as well as changes in the clinical and imaging characteristics.
Methods: We respectively reviewed 1042 SPECT-MPI cases performed in a 4-month period during the COVID-19 pandemic (PAN; n=423) and compared their findings with those acquired in the same months before the pandemic (PRE; n=619).
Results: The number of stress SPECT-MPI studies performed during the PAN period significantly dropped compared to the number of studies carried out in the PRE period (p = 0.014). In the PRE period, the rates of patients presenting with non-anginal, atypical and typical chest pain were 31%, 25% and 19%, respectively. The figures significantly changed in the PAN period to 19%, 42%, and 11%, respectively (all p-values <0.001). Regarding the pretest probability of coronary artery disease (CAD), a significant decrease and increase were noticed in patients with high and intermediate pretest probability, respectively (PRE: 18% and 55%, PAN: 6% and 65%, p <0.001 and 0.008, respectively). Neither the rates of myocardial ischemia nor infarction differed significantly in the PRE vs. PAN study periods.
Conclusion: The number of referrals dropped significantly in the PAN era. While the proportion of patients with intermediate risk for CAD being referred for SPECT-MPI increased, those with high pretest probability were less frequently referred. Image parameters were mostly comparable between the study groups in the PRE and PAN periods.
目的我们评估了COVID-19大流行对SPECT心肌灌注成像(SPECT-MPI)转诊人数的影响以及临床和成像特征的变化:我们分别回顾了 COVID-19 大流行期间(PAN;n=423)4 个月内进行的 1042 例 SPECT-MPI 检查,并将其结果与大流行前相同月份(PRE;n=619)的检查结果进行了比较:结果:在 PAN 期间进行的压力 SPECT-MPI 研究数量与 PRE 期间进行的研究数量相比明显下降(p = 0.014)。在 PRE 阶段,出现非心绞痛、非典型胸痛和典型胸痛的患者比例分别为 31%、25% 和 19%。在 PAN 阶段,这些数字有了明显变化,分别为 19%、42% 和 11%(所有 p 值均为结论值):在 PAN 时代,转诊人数大幅下降。虽然中危 CAD 患者转诊 SPECT-MPI 的比例增加了,但高预检概率患者转诊的频率降低了。在 PRE 和 PAN 阶段,各研究组的图像参数大多具有可比性。