Lung ventilation-perfusion scintigraphy – Cardiology MCQ – Answer

Lung ventilation-perfusion scintigraphy has a negative predictive value of nearly — percent for excluding thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension:

Correct answer: a) 100%

Because of the nearly 100% negative predictive value,  a normal lung ventilation-perfusion scintigraphy (V/Q scan) virtually excludes the diagnosis of chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH). V/Q scanning has a high sensitivity of 96 – 97.4% for detecting perfusion abnormalities.
But V/Q scan being not very specific, its diagnostic utility is low. It can only be used as an initial screening test. Any abnormal test requires addition diagnostic imaging like CT (computed tomography) pulmonary angiogram, MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) or invasive (catheter based) pulmonary angiogram for establishing the diagnosis of thromboembolic pulmonary disease.

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