[Scintigraphy with 123I-labelled fatty acids in coronary heart disease]

Forty-two patients (6 women, 36 men; mean age 55 [39-69] years), with one-, two- or three-vessel disease on coronary angiography, were studied using single-photon emission computer tomography with 15-p-123I-iodophenyl-pentadecanoic acid (IPPA), in order to evaluate this new method of demonstrating abnormalities of myocardial perfusion. The reference range for fatty acid turnover was determined in eleven controls (4 women, 7 men; mean age 41 [20-51] years) with no coronary stenosis. 185 MBq (5 mCi) of IPPA was administered intravenously during submaximal stress on a bicycle ergometer. Comparison between different regions of the tomograms revealed changes in fatty acid utilization typical of ischaemia. The sensitivity, specificity and predictive value of a positive result compared with coronary angiography were 95%, 89% and 93%, respectively, for the area supplied by the anterior interventricular artery, 92%, 91% and 93% for the circumflex branch and 89%, 91% and 90% for the right coronary artery. In 25 out of 31 patients (81%) with myocardial infarction, IPPA scintigraphy infarct localization agreed with the clinical findings. In two cases with unremarkable scintigrams left ventriculography showed hypokinesia, while in four cases neither method demonstrated any abnormality. There was one false-positive scintigram. IPPA scintigraphy has greater sensitivity and specificity than conventional nuclear medicine techniques in the demonstration of coronary heart disease.