or clinicians, the functional outcome of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is a great concern, particularly because a large AMI often causes congestive heart failure in its clinical course. Emergency percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is now performed in many hospitals for patients with AMI 1-4 to salvage ischemic Circulation Journal Vol.69, March 2005 myocardium. However, in the 1970s, Heyndrickx et al reported that regional contraction remained abnormal for more than 3 h after a 5-min coronary occlusion in conscious dogs, 5 which established that the contractility of viable ischemic myocardium often does not recover at once, even though circulation to the ischemic myocardium has been restored. This phenomenon is termed myocardial stunning. [6][7][8] Whether ischemic myocardium is stunned and regains its contractility is a matter of great concern. 18 Ffluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron-emission tomography (PET) is considered to be the most useful method of evaluating viability of the myocardium, 9-11 but it requires a cyclotron, which limits its availability. We compared the ability of a combination of 123 I-methyl pentadecanoic acid (BMIPP) and 99m Tc tetrofosmin (TF) single-photon emission tomography (SPECT), a combination of 18 F-FDG PET Background 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron-emission tomography (PET) is assumed to be the most useful method of evaluating the viability of the myocardium, but its use is limited by the need for a cyclotron. In the present study, the ability of a combination of 99m Tc-tetrofosmin (TF) and 123 I--methyliodophenyl pentadecanoic acid (BMIPP) single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), a combination of 18 F-FDG PET and 123 I-BMIPP SPECT, and a combination of 18 F-FDG PET and 99m Tc-TF SPECT were compared to predict functional improvement of ischemic myocardium after a large acute myocardial infarction (AMI).
Methods and ResultsTen patients with large AMI were studied by 99m Tc-TF SPECT, 123 I-BMIPP SPECT and 18 F-FDG PET within 3 weeks. Six months later, 99m Tc-TF imaging was performed. All patients underwent successful revascularization, and had no restenosis. Regional tracer uptake was scored using a 4-point scale in 20 segments of the SPECT and PET images. When the defect score of 123 I-BMIPP SPECT exceeded the defect score of 99m Tc-TF SPECT or 18 F-FDG PET by 1 point or more, and when the defect score of 99m Tc-TF SPECT exceeded the defect score of 18 F-FDG PET by 1 point or more, the segment was considered to show mismatching. When the defect score was the same in 2 tracers, the segment was considered to show matching. 99m Tc-TF imaging at 3 weeks and 6 months used quantitative gated SPECT (QGS) to score wall motion using a 6-point scale (-1= dyskinesis, 0= akinesis, 1= severe hypokinesis, 2= moderate hypokinesis, 3= mild hypokinesis, and 4= normokinesis).