Quantification of infarct size in the dog by thallium-201 single photon emission transaxial tomography (SPETT)

In a series of 12 dogs having an acute experimental anteriormyocardial infarct, the size of the infarct was measured using,successively, single photon emission transaxial tomography (SPETT)with thallium-201, conventional planar scintigraphy of the anatomicslices, and planimetry of these slices after nitroblue-tetrazolium(NBT) staining. The tomographic views were obtained after processingof projection images collected during the rotation of a scintillationcamera around the animals. A correlation of 0.86 was obtainedbetween SPETT and NBT staining for the whole series, and a valueof 0.94 was observed when only the transmural infarcts wereconsidered. These results suggest that SPETT of the myocardiumlabelled with thallium-201 should allow a reliable, rapid andatraumatic estimation of the infarct size.