Myocardial gated tomoscintigraphy with 99Tcm-methoxy-isobutyl-isonitrile (MIBI): regional and temporal activity curve analysis

Abstract

Myocardial gated tomoscintigraphy with hexakis-(2 methoxy-isobutyl-isonitrile) labelled with 99Tcm, is more suitable to resolve precisely the size of myocardial infarct than nongated 201Tl tomoscintigraphy. Gated tomography gives short axis slices at eight points in the cardiac cycle. A quantitative method to analyse heart wall activity and its motion is proposed. In two groups of patients, one with inferior infarct and the other with anterior infarct, the time-activity curves show a maximum in systole for healthy regions and a flattened curve in akinetic regions. Gated tomoscintigraphy assesses more accurately the size of the injured regions because there is no averaging between systolic and diastolic activity as in 201Tl tomoscintigraphy. This method should permit a better follow-up of patients with myocardial infarct.