Quantitation of ischemic and infarcted myocardium: relation between 99 Tc pyrophosphate and regional and total coronary blood flow, myocardial function and metabolism. Annual scientific report, 1 Jul 1975--31 Mar 1976

The contract was designed to evaluate the use of selected radionuclide techniques in evaluating the size of acute myocardial infarction in patients. Supplementary studies have suggested that there is a reasonable quantitative relationship in dogs with experimental myocardial infarction. During this first year several studies were done to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of these radionuclide techniques. In a prospective study of perioperative infarction following saphenous vein bypass grafting, new Q waves on the electrocardiogram and a positive discrete technetium pyrophosphate image had approximately the same sensitivity and specificity for perioperative infarction. Perfusion imaging with rubidium 81 and thallium 201 proved to be quite sensitive and specific for previous myocardial infarction. In 23 patients with acute myocardial infarction there was a general relationship between the size of the pyrophosphate image and hemodynamic parameters