Myocardial reperfusion and function after percutaneous recanalization in patients with left ventricular dysfunction

In 18 patients with left ventricular dysfunction (ejection fraction ≤ 35%) the changes in the myocardial perfusion and in the left ventricular function after percutaneous recanalization were determined by SPECT 99mTc-MIBI perfusion tomography and two-dimensional echocardiography. The presence of viable hibernating myocardium was determined before recanalization by quantitative analysis of the 99mTc-MIBI uptake before and after infusion of 99mTc-MIBI. The gated SPECT study was performed for simultaneous evaluation of the perfusion, and the left ventricular kinetic and systolic thickening. From 108 segments with kinetic abnormalities 70 shown viability and 62 had reperfusion after revascularization. The comparison with echocardiography proved a post-procedural changes in the degree and extent of the kinetic abnormalities and the correspondence also with the perfusion improvement. There was good correspondence also with the pre-procedural data about the segments with myocardial viability and between the echocardiographic and gated SPECT data. (authors)