Myocardial perfusion scintigraphy in Europe 2005

We have conducted a survey of myocardial perfusion scintigraphy (MPS) in 2005 in Europe with the intention of initiating a regular series of surveys to track usage of the technique.

Information was obtained from 234 centres in 18 counties. The returning centres served 27% of the population of their countries, and estimates of the numbers of MPS per million of population (pmp) were made assuming that the population not reported either performed no studies (lower estimate) or the same number pmp as the reporting centres (upper estimate).

Estimates of MPS for the countries surveyed ranged from a lower limit of 373 pmp to an upper limit of 1,388 pmp. There were marked variations between countries with higher numbers (lower limit of estimate above the mid range of all countries combined) in Austria, Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands, Sweden and Slovenia, and lower numbers (upper limit of estimate below the mid range of all countries) in Finland, Germany and Poland. The ratio of MPS to coronary angiography to revascularisation procedures was 0.6 to 1.5 to 1. The median number of studies per centre was 496, with 32% of centres performing fewer than 250 studies in the year. The median waiting time for routine studies was 21 days and for urgent studies 3.4 days. Fifty-three percent of studies used pharmacological stress, with roughly equal numbers of adenosine and dipyridamole. Eighty-two percent of studies used ^99mTc-based tracers. Tomographic acquisition was almost universal with 65% of studies being ECG-gated and 20% attenuation-corrected. Eighteen percent of studies were reported from hard copy alone, and 60% of studies were reported without viewing the rotating planar data.

We conclude that relatively low numbers of MPS studies are being performed in the surveyed centres, particularly when compared with coronary angiography and revascularisation. The use of ^99mTc-based tracers is high, but ECG-gated studies are less common. Some reporting practices are not ideal. These data will serve as a valuable baseline for future surveys, which are likely to be more complete.