[The usefulness of 18F-FDG SPECT imaging in evaluating myocardial viability]

We compared myocardial viability evaluated by 18F-deoxyglucose (FDG) SPECT in 14 old myocardial infarction patients with that evaluated by 201TI SPECT and 123I-beta-methyl-iodophenyl pentadecanoic acid SPECT as imaging of fatty acid metabolism. FDG-SPECT was performed after oral administration of glucose. From each SPECT image which was divided into 7 segments, the degree of accumulation of each radioisotope (RI) was visually classified into four grades of defect score (ranging from 0 as normal to 3 as severe defect). The % uptake in the same area was also quantitatively calculated.

The degree of accumulation of myocardial Rl relative to regional wall motion. FDG is the most wide for a range of accumulation of Rl of infarct area. Also, at FDG, in the area of wall motion had done a disorder, the degree of accumulation was higher than other two methods. In the infarcted area, the degree of accumulation on FDG-SPECT in the area of decreased wall motion was greater than that on the other two procedures. These results suggest that FDG-SPECT is useful for evaluating myocardial viability.