10 years of nuclear cardiology. (I) . Clinical development and technological progress in nuclear medicine at the Ignacio Chávez National Cardiological Institute
Cuarón Santiesteban, A.
Archivos del Instituto de Cardiologia de Mexico 57(5): 403-413
1987
ISSN/ISBN: 0020-3785 PMID: 2962553 Document Number: 295272
The department of nuclear medicine of the Instituto Nacional de Cardiología started at the right moment (June 2, 1977), when the first cardiological procedures were developed. Unfortunately, it coincided in time with the beginning of the financial crisis. The higher costs of nuclear medicine instruments and operationsdid not allow the evolution of the department according to the original project, as nuclear cardiology demands special tracers and instrumentation, which are expensive and only available abroad. To solve these problems, we planned the creation of our own technology. We created a laboratory for radiopharmacy to elaborate lyophylized ingredients for the "cold" kits for instant labeling with 99Tcm of several tracers. With this, we achieved a substantial decrease in the operating costs, with total independence of commercial firms, and the future of the department was assured. In the field of instrumentation, a new system for tomodensitometric imaging of the thorax has been created by using two external gamma sources 99Tcm, and a digital system for image display and analysis was designed, built and programmed. This system, allowed the development of the quantitative technique of nuclear cardiology. We expect the software menu to be finished within this year. The transit from general nuclear medicine to nuclear cardiology has been slow in this Institute. During the first 8 years, the cardiological studies represented 10.8% of all in vivo studies; this figure increased to 37.8% in 1986. However, the increasing demand of cardiological studies tends to displace other in vivo studies due to oversaturation of the gamma-camera and the digital system. It can be concluded that the evolution of nuclear cardiology has been slow in this Institute, but represents a factual progress based on the creation of a technological substructure with internal resources.