Author |
최윤호(Yoon Ho Choi),김상은(Sang Eun Kim),이동수(Dong Soo Lee),정준기(June Key Chung),이명철(Myung Chul Lee),김건열(Keun Youl Kim),고창순(Chang Soon Koh),궁성수(Sung Soo Koong), |
Abstract |
Pulmonary embolism demands rapid and accurate
diagnosis. And ventilation imaging has greatly improved
the diagnostic accuracy of pulmonary embolism in
addition to perfusion imaging. Agents currently used
include xenon-133, krypton-8lm and technetium-99m
radioaerosols. However radioactive gases are
compromised by availability and cost for krypton-8lm,
radiation dose, gamma energy and non-physiologic
behaviour for xenon-133. Radioaerosols of technetium-
99m componds are rapidly cleared from the lung after
inhalation, and their relative low effeciency (specific
radioactivity) and wide distribution of particle sizes
make them also suboptimum. A new ventilation agent,
Technegas is a suspension of structured graphite
ellipsoids with diameter below 20nm, labelled with Tc-
99m in a carrier gas of Argon. This report describes
the authors' clinical experience with Technegas. This
is the first reported clinical study of this agent in
Korea. A comparison of Technegas and Tc-99m-DTPA
aerosol was performed in 12 patients with various
pulmonary diseases such as COPD, pulmonary tuberculosis
and pleural effusion. All patients were studied with
Tc-99m-DTPA aerosol inhalation and Technegas
ventilation. In both studies image quality was assessed
(1) semiquantitatively by scoring bronchial and gastric
activity, (2) subjectivly by direct visual comparisan
of peripheral lung images and (3) quantitatively by
computing the peripheral penetration index(PI) for each
lungs. The bronchial activites were seen in 7 out of 12
cases with Tc-99m-DTPA aerosol and in 5/12 with
Technegas. The gastric activities were seen in 5/12 and
1/12 cases respectively. The average values of PI were
61.26% with Tc- 99m-DTPA aerosol and 69.20% with
Technegas (p〉0.05). Using Tc-99m-DTPA aerosol, COPD
patients showed deposition in the central airways with
poor visualization of the peripheral areas of the
lungs. In Technegas studies these phenomena were less
prominent, and the examination is well tolerated by
patient and requires only a minimum of patient
cooperation. With superiority of easy availability and
handling, better physical characteristics and favorable
image quality, Technegas is a promising agent for lung
ventilation scanning. |