EditorialRadionuclide Imaging for the Detection of Cardiac Infection
Section snippets
Anatomical Imaging
Traditionally, anatomical imaging, especially echocardiography, plays a first line role in the diagnosis of cardiac infection together with blood cultures. It provides information such as assessment of a pericardial collection, a cardiac abscess or of valvular vegetations. The sensitivity and the specificity of transoesophageal echocardiography for detecting endocarditis and its complications were 80 and 95% in Thomas’s study.2 Another study showed the sensitivity is about 94% but the
Radionuclide Imaging
Radionuclide imaging is also a useful, non-invasive technique for evaluating cardiac infection. Because of its detection of physiological change, which may occur prior to anatomical alteration, it can provide information at an early stage.
The mechanisms of gallium-67 citrate and labelled leukocyte uptake are different. After intravenous injection, gallium-67 binds to plasma proteins, particularly transferrin, but has an affinity for lactoferrin released from degranulated neutrophils in inflamed
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