Publications by authors named "Ana Carolina do A H Souza"
Background: The epidemiology of coronary artery disease (CAD) has shifted, with increasing prevalence of cardiometabolic disease and decreasing findings of obstructive CAD on myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI). Coronary microvascular dysfunction (CMD), defined as impaired myocardial flow reserve (MFR) by positron emission tomography (PET), has emerged as a key mediator of risk. We aimed to assess whether PET MFR provides additive value for risk stratification of cardiometabolic disease patients compared with single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) MPI.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Body mass index (BMI) is a controversial marker of cardiovascular prognosis, especially in women. Coronary microvascular dysfunction (CMD) is prevalent in obese patients and a better discriminator of risk than BMI, but its association with body composition is unknown.
Objectives: The authors used a deep learning model for body composition analysis to investigate the relationship between CMD, skeletal muscle (SM), subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT), and visceral adipose tissue (VAT), and their contribution to adverse outcomes in patients referred for evaluation of coronary artery disease.
Article Synopsis
- SPECT imaging, specifically with cadmium zinc telluride detectors, can accurately measure myocardial blood flow (MBF) and myocardial flow reserve (MFR), but its reliability is still being evaluated, particularly for multivessel and microvascular coronary artery disease.
- A study compared Tc-sestamibi SPECT with N-ammonia positron emission tomography in 34 patients to validate the accuracy of MBF and MFR measurements, and assessed the reproducibility of the SPECT technique in another group of 14 patients.
- Results showed that SPECT MBF measurements reconstructed with spline fitting had a strong correlation with PET results, indicating better accuracy and reproducibility, while standard reconstruction
Ischemic heart disease (IHD) is the leading cause of mortality in women. While traditional cardiovascular risk factors play an important role in the development of IHD in women, women may experience sex-specific IHD risk factors and pathophysiology, and thus female-specific risk stratification is needed for IHD prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. Emerging data from the past 2 decades have significantly improved the understanding of IHD in women, including mechanisms of ischemia with no obstructive coronary arteries and myocardial infarction with no obstructive coronary arteries.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The prognostic value of myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) in patients with known coronary artery disease (CAD) and high exercise capacity is still unknown. We sought to determine the MPI additional prognostic value over electrocardiography (ECG) stress testing alone in patients with known CAD who achieved ≥ 10 metabolic equivalents (METs).
Methods And Results: We evaluated 926 patients with known CAD referred for MPI with exercise stress.
Background: Previous studies have suggested using gamma cameras with cadmium-zinc-telluride (CZT) detectors to quantify myocardial blood flow (MBF) and flow reserve (MFR). In this study, we aimed to evaluate the feasibility and accuracy of MFR quantification using a CZT camera compared to coronary angiography.
Methods: Forty-one participants referred for coronary angiography underwent a rest/stress one-day myocardial perfusion imaging protocol using a CZT gamma camera.