[Evaluation of thallium-201 myocardial emission computed tomography based on a comparison with postmortem findings]

The correlative study of myocardial perfusion assessed by 201Tl myocardial ECT with the pathological finding of the heart was performed in 10 autopsied cases with mean age of 77 years old (range: 60-90 y). In 6 cases with myocardial infarction (MI) 7 perfusion defects were observed, that was, 3 in anteroseptal wall, 1 in anterolateral wall and 3 in posterior wall on the images of SPECT. Seven MIs were also found in postmortem examination. Six MIs were observed at autopsy corresponding to perfusion defect on SPECT images. In one myocardial perfusion defect at inferoposterior portion on SPECT, a non-transmural MI was found at anteroseptum. In one case with valvular disease a false positive result was obtained at posterior wall where neither myocardial necrosis nor fibrosis was observed at autopsy. This case had aortic stenosis due to bicuspid aortic valve by autopsy. The ventricle was divided into 16 segments in each of 4 short axial images to evaluate extent of MI. SPECT for extent of MI showed sensitivity of 81.9%, specificity of 96.0% and diagnostic accuracy of 92.5%. False negative segment was apt to be observed at the surrounding of non-transmural MI or basal half of left ventricle (LV) with transmural MI, while false positive segment was at posterior portion of basal half of LV. It was concluded that myocardial ECT was useful for evaluation of the site and extent of MI.