Myocardial scintigraphy in acute myocardial infarction

The sensitivity and specificity of 99m Tc-PYP myocardial scintigraphy for detecting an acute myocardial infarction were studied in 39 patients hospitalized because of central chest pain. One myocardial scintigraphic examination was done in each patient between the first and sixth day after the chest pain had started. Twenty-two patients had a myocardial infarction based on history, ECG and enzym values and myocardial scintigraphy was positive in twenty of these. Three patients with left bundle branch block and myocardial infarction all had a positive myocardial scintigram and the one patient with negative ECG and myocardial infarction also had a positive myocardial scintigram. The sensitivity is 91% and the specificity is 91.7% for 99m Tc-PYP myocardial scintigraphy in the detection of acute myocardial infarction. No complications were seen. (Auth.)