Technetium 99m stannous pyrophosphate myocardial imaging in patients with and without left ventricular aneurysm

To further explore the usefulness of technetium 99m pyrophosphate (99mTc-PYP) myocardial imaging and test its validity in the diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction, 99mTc-PYP myocardial scintigrams were performed in 50 patients. Out of 28 patients with acute myocardial infarction, myocardial scintigrams demonstrated localized activity in the 15 patients with transmural, and diffuse activity in the 13 patients with subendocardial myocardial infarction. Twenty-two patients with significant coronary artery disease documented by coronary angiography but without acute myocardial infarction were also studied. Nine of ten patients with clinical evidence of left ventricular aneurysm from previous myocardial infarction and definite left ventricular dyskinesis had positive scintigrams with activity localized to the site of the wall motion abnormality. Two of five patients without definite aneurysm but with left ventricular akinesis also had localized uptake in the involved area of the left ventricle. Seven patients with normal left ventricular wall motion had negative scintigrams. These findings suggest caution in interpreting positive 99mTc-PYP scintigrams as being indicative of acute myocardial infarction when evidence of a left ventricular aneurysm is also present.