Quantitation of experimental canine infarct size using multipinhole single-photon tomography

A four-pinhole longitudinal tomographic system, with collimator and software, was developed for a standard-field portable scintillation camera. This system was used with technetium--99m pyrophosphate (Tc-PPi) to quantify the volume of infarcted myocardium in 27 dogs with experimental myocardial infarcts. These were induced by ligation of the left anterior descending (LAD) or the circumflex coronary artery. Tomographic estimations of scintigraphic infarct size agreed well with postmortem findings when the circumflex group (r = 0.87) and LAD group (r = 0.83) were considered separately, but the correlation fell when the groups were pooled (r = 0.73). Whereas multipinhole tomography extends Tc-PPi infarct sizing capability in animals to include posterior and subendocardial infarcts as well as anterior lesions, the tomographic sections contain enough blur artifacts to lower the sizing accuracy of the method. The main advantage of the technique may well be its ability to aid in detection and location of small myocardial infarcts.