Gallium-67 Myocardial Imaging for the Detection of Bacterial Endocarditis

Eleven patients with a clinical diagnosis of bacterial endocarditis underwent scintillation scanning of the precordial region 2-7 days after the intravenous administration of 3 mCi of gallium-67 citrate. Seven had positive scans, 3 of which were confirmed by postmortem imaging at autopsy. Serial images revealed the scans to be frequently negative at 48 hours and positive from 3 to 8 days following injection. Uptake was not seen in the region of the myocardium 48 hours or longer after the injection of 15 patients without endocarditis used as controls.