Family Practice and Palliative Care (Aug 2017)
Evaluation of lower extremity perfusion in organ scintigraphy in patients who are planned for amputation
Abstract
Introduction: No method alone is enough to take the amputation decision in the lower extremity. Therefore, in our study, the contribution of organ perfusion scintigraphy to the evaluation of lower extremity perfusion was investigated.Methods: Our study was retrospectively designed and investigated patients applying for evaluation before amputation, and with Tc-99m sestamibi organ perfusion scintigraphy performed. The research included a total of 21 patients (18 male, 3 female, mean age 67.2 ± 10.6 years). The patients had OPS results and the results of other investigation methods (DUSG and CTA) comparatively evaluated. Statistically the diagnostic value of OPS was compared with the other investigation methods.Results: There was no statistically significant difference between patients in both groups in terms of demographic data, risk factors and accompanying diseases. Twenty-one patients had both OPS and DUSG performed while only eleven patients had CTA performed. The results of the evaluations found that 5 of the 21 patients had amputation performed. The results were positive in all three tests of amputated patients. Conclusion: Considering that peripheral arterial disease is a functional problem, it is understood that weighted morphological and limited hemodynamic data are inadequate for clinical evaluation and therefore physiological and functional examination methods are needed. For this reason, OPS is a valuable nuclear medicine method that can be used additionally in patients with amputation planned especially in the evaluation of lower extreme perfusion.
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