Early radionuclide scans for risk assessment in suspected acute myocardial infarction

First-day thallium-201 myocardial perfusion scans and technetium-99m RBC gated scintiangiography were performed during the initial clinical and prognostic evaluation of 69 patients with suspected acute myocardial infarction. Patients were monitored for clinical course, diagnosis confirmation, and use of specialty services (cardiac catheterization, percutaneous balloon angioplasty, and cardiac surgery) during hospitalization. Myocardial infarction, confirmed in 20 patients, was associated with significantly more left ventricular dilatation, lower ejection fractions, lower peak left ventricular filling rates, wall motion abnormalities, and thallium-201 perfusion defects than nonmyocardial infarction patients. Among all patients, left ventricular dilatation carried a relative risk of myocardial infarction of 5.8; low ejection fraction and right ventricular dilatation were strongly associated with myocardial infarction. A logistic model for congestive heart failure included: left ventricular dilation, lower mean left ventricular filling rates and time to peak filling rates, and abnormal thallium-201 lung:heart uptakes. Among nonmyocardial infarction patients, subsequent cardiac catheterization was predicted by the presence of anterior thallium-201 perfusion defects, Killip functional class II-III, and ischemia on ECG. These findings suggest that early detection of myocardial perfusion defects and cardiac dysfunction by radionuclide scans enhances initial evaluation of suspected acute myocardial infarction patients. Additional studies are needed to confirm these findings.