Technetium-99m stannous pyrophosphate scintigraphy in patients with calcification within the cardiac silhouette.

Abstract

SUMMARY Technetium-99m stannous pyrophosphate scintiscanning was performed in 22 patients with radiographically detected calcification within the cardiac silhouette. All but one of these scintigrams showed a localised area of increased activity similar to that ordinarily seen in acute myocardial infarction. Scintiscans in 3 patients after removal of the calcified aortic valve reverted to negative. It was concluded that this technique for acute infarct detection may yield false positive results in the presence of cardiac calcification.

Technetium‐99m stannous pyrophosphate myocardial scintigraphy: Serial imaging to detect myocardial infarcts in patients

“…However, larger numbers of patients with "persistently positive" 99IDTc_PYP myocardial scintigrams need to be studied to allow one to determine whether the initial clinical and anatomical correlations that we have made will also apply to larger numbers of patients. It should be remembered that myocardial necrosis due to etiologies other than ischemic heart disease may also result in an abnormal 99IDTc_PYP myocardial scintigram (1,6,9,15,17). Thus, a persistently or even transiently abnormal 99IDTc_PYP myocardial scintigram can occur in the absence of classical acute myocardial infarction due to coronary arteriosclerosis.…”