Experience with a Perfusion-Only Screening Protocol for Evaluation of Pulmonary Embolism During the COVID-19 Pandemic Surge

The Journal of Nuclear Medicine

article

Arun Kumar¹  Renée M. Moadel¹  Linda B. Haramati²  Kenny Ye⁴  Leonard M. Freeman¹  Lionel S. Zuckier¹ 

[1] Division of Nuclear Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine;Division of Cardiothoracic Imaging, Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine;Departments of Radiology and Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine;Division of Biostatistics, Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Albert Einstein College of Medicine

关键词: ventilation;    pulmonary embolism;    COVID-19;    lung scintigraphy;   

DOI  :  10.2967/jnumed.121.262580

学科分类：医学（综合）

来源: Society of Nuclear Medicine

【 摘 要 】

The purpose of this study was to evaluate a pulmonary embolism (PE) perfusion-only screening (POS) protocol introduced during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic surge. Subjects without dense parenchymal lung opacities were studied; those with less than 1 segmental perfusion defect were considered to have no PE, whereas those exhibiting 1 or more defects were indeterminate, mandating additional examinations to determine the final diagnosis. Methods: We analyzed demographic information, clinical data, imaging findings, and follow-up data from the electronic records of COVID-19 patients who underwent lung scintigraphy during the 60-d study period. Results: In total, 53 studies were performed on 17 COVID-19–positive and 36 COVID-19–negative patients. The POS protocol efficiently excluded PE in 79% of cases; the remaining 21%, indeterminate for PE, were generally referred for alternative testing or were directly anticoagulated. In patients with negative POS results, there was a very low mortality before hospital discharge (1/42) and normal results on follow-up studies (6/6). Conclusion: The POS protocol, implemented during the COVID-19 surge, efficiently and safely excluded PE in 79% of patients.

【 授权许可】

CC BY