Fig 1.
Illustrative images of the processing of a myocardial perfusion study in a patient with Chagas disease.
A: Representation of the alignment in orthogonal planes of the tomographic slice orientations of the left ventricle. B: Definition and identification of left ventricular regions for the construction of the polar map. C: Resulting polar map.
Fig 2.
Illustrative images of the quantitative processing of polar maps from a myocardial perfusion study in one of the investigated patients.
A: Comparison of radiotracer uptake areas with a database of healthy individuals at rest and during stress, respectively, showing pixel distribution according to standard deviations from the mean value observed in each pixel of the normal database. B: Identification of regions with uptake thresholds below 25 standard deviations in rest and stress images, identifying significant perfusion defect areas compared to the normal database (areas marked in red). The extent of reversible ischemic perfusion defect is calculated by subtracting the rest defect area from the stress defect area (reversible defect area = stress defect area – rest defect area).
Fig 3.
CONSORT diagram illustrating patient flow during the study.
Table 1.
Clinical and Demographic Characteristics of the Study Population.
Table 2.
Baseline and Post-Treatment Serum Cytokine Levels in Each Investigational Group.
Fig 4.
Line graph showing the values of inflammatory cytokines at baseline and after treatment.
A: IL-10; B: TNF-α; C: IL-6. p = ANOVA Mixed Models.
Table 3.
Baseline and Post-Treatment Serum Levels of NT-proBNP in Each Investigational Group.
Table 4.
Baseline and Post-Treatment Results of Echocardiographic Variables in Each Experimental Group.
Table 5.
Baseline and Post-Treatment Myocardial Perfusion Defects Expressed as a Percentage of the Total Left Ventricular Surface Area in Each Experimental Group.
Fig 5.
Line graph showing the values of myocardial perfusion defects in the study groups. p = ANOVA Mixed Models.
Table 6.
Variables obtained from the SF-36 quality of life questionnaire in each experimental group.
Table 7.
Baseline and post-treatment results of categorical electrocardiographic variables in each study group.
Table 8.
Baseline and post-treatment results of quantitative electrocardiographic variables in each study group.