This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related articles  • Similar articles in JAMA  Topic Collections  • Radionuclide Imaging  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

To the Editor: Dr Udelson and colleagues¹ reported that sestamibi perfusion imaging improved triage decision making for patients in the emergency department (ED) with symptoms suggestive of acute cardiac ischemia, but without obvious abnormalities on initial electrocardiogram. I have 4 concerns about the consequences if such a policy were to be widely adopted.

First, this trial was conducted only during weekday regular working hours. In my experience with a similar policy at a local hospital, technologists were called upon to perform resting myocardial imaging at all hours. The images were sent by modem to a nuclear medicine physician, who then relayed the results back to the treating physician in the ED. In a period of less than 2 years, the exodus of nuclear technologists was so severe that the institution abandoned the program. Perhaps this personnel problem could be justified if a nuclear imaging strategy was actually superior to conventional . . . [Full Text of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

RELATED ARTICLES

Sestamibi Imaging to Triage Patients With Acute Chest Pain
Robert Chait
JAMA. 2003;289(11):1381-1382.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Sestamibi Imaging to Triage Patients With Acute Chest Pain—Reply
James E. Udelson, Joni R. Beshansky, and Harry P. Selker
JAMA. 2003;289(11):1382.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Myocardial Perfusion Imaging for Evaluation and Triage of Patients With Suspected Acute Cardiac Ischemia: A Randomized Controlled Trial
James E. Udelson, Joni R. Beshansky, Daniel S. Ballin, James A. Feldman, John L. Griffith, Gary V. Heller, Robert C. Hendel, J. Hector Pope, Robin Ruthazer, Ethan J. Spiegler, Robert H. Woolard, Jonathan Handler, and Harry P. Selker
JAMA. 2002;288(21):2693-2700.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT