Myocardial uptake of /sup 99m/Tc skeletal agents in the rat after experimental induction of microscopic foci of injury

The cardiac uptake of Tc99m tagged skeletal agents was studied after myocardial injury produced by subcutaneous catecholamine injection and random foot-shock stress. Rats stressed for 2 hr developed microfocal myocardial injury, without gross change, whereas those stressed for 12 hr sustained more confluent and sometimes grossly visible damage. Tc-99m MDP and Tc99m PP4 concentrations in these hearts were significantly above control (undamaged) heart levels, producing positive gamma-camera images. Subcutaneous epinephrine injections resulted in grossly visible lesions, with tracer concentrations higher than those previously reported in vasoocclusive infarcts. We postulate that the stress-induced scattered microfocal lesions may accumulate radiopharmaceutical on a per-gram basis in the same way as the larger catecholamine-induced lesions, since tracer delivery to the injured areas in each case is probably less impeded than in frankly vasoocclusive models. Such microfoci, then, could provide an explanation for some of the ''false positive'' myocardial scans observed clinically