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The quantitative relationship between abnormalities seen on technetium-99m pyrophosphate (99mTc-PYP) infarct scintigrams and the size of the myocardial infarction is unclear. We evaluated two possible determinants of 99mTc-PYP accumulation: myocardial perfusion measured with 7-10 mu microspheres and the extent of necrosis determined histologically. Hemodynamics and myocardial perfusion to small segments of the left ventricle were measured prior to, 5-10 min, and 44-48 hours following sudden occlusion of the left anterior descending coronary artery in ten awake dogs. 99mTc-PYP was injected i.v. following the third injection of microspheres and the animals were killed 2 hours later. The important findings were as follows: 1) there is a close relationship between the extent of myocardial necrosis observed and the perfusion of segments 5-10 min following coronary occlusion; and 2) that segmental myocardial perfusion is an important determinant of 99mTc-PYP accumulation by myocardial segments which contain areas of necrosis. Although the present data preclude statistical analysis of the relationship between the level of necrosis in a segment and the accumulation of 99mTc-PYP by that segment, the two do not appear to be related, a finding which would discourage use of intensity of 99mTc-PYP images for infarct size. The distribution of an abnormality on the scintigram may provide an estimate of infarct size. However, the geometry of the infarct and the resolving power of the scanning equipment will significantly limit this in many clinical situations.
Marcus et al. (Fri,) studied this question.