[Pulmonary scintigraphy with MAA-Tc 99m perfusion in the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism].

Perfusion lung scintigraphy is vital to guide the diagnosis even without a ventilation scintigraphy. A customised strategy could be useful to optimise the use of perfusion scintigraphy when not coupled with a ventilation scintigraphy. We report about a retrospective study on 300 patients received in our department for suspected lung migrations. The patients underwent a perfusion scintigraphy only: a normal scintigraphy would discard the diagnosis when achieved between 6 and 72 hours after the accident. On the other hand, the evidence of one or two perfusion defects would allow to maintain the pulmonary embolism suspicion and establish an effective heparinic treatment. A second control comparative scintigraphy, a few weeks after the first one, very often confirms the diagnosis, allows the assessment of the heparinotherapy and if necessary, indicate to stop it.