Quantification of myocardial infarct size by thallium-201 single-photon emission computed tomography: experimental validation in the dog.

To evaluate the potential advantages of thallium-201 (201T1) single-photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT) to assess myocardial infarct size in the experimental animal, six normal dogs and 14 dogs with 6 to 8 hr closed-chest coronary occlusion (eight left anterior descending and six left circumflex) were studied. Ten minutes after intravenous administration of 2 mCi of 201T1, 30 projections were obtained over 180 degrees. The dogs were killed and their hearts sliced and stained by triphenyl tetrazolium chloride (TTC). Pathologic infarct size was calculated for each slice and for the entire left ventricular myocardium as percent weight. Tomograms were quantified by automatically generating maximum-count circumferential profiles, which were compared with normal limit profiles derived from the six normal dogs. Tomographic infarct size was defined as the percentage of circumferential points falling below normal for each tomogram. SPECT and TTC infarct size on 71 slices correlated highly (mean +/- SD 27.9 +/- 23.4% and 26.7 +/- 25.3%, respectively; r = .93, p less than .001, SEE = 9.4%). To determine SPECT infarct size as percent total left ventricular myocardial weight, infarct sizes from each slice were added to one another after each was multiplied by a coefficient that reflected the contribution of that slice to the total left ventricular weight. SPECT and TTC infarct size for the entire left ventricle correlated closely (mean +/- SD 20.5 +/- 7.6% and 19.3 +/- 8.3%, respectively; r = .86, p less than .001, SEE = 4.5%). It is concluded that 201T1 SPECT is a valid method for the noninvasive assessment of experimental myocardial infarct size.