Clinical utility of technetium-99m-teboroxime myocardial washout imaging.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical utility of 99mTc-teboroxime myocardial washout imaging. The differential washout after a single tracer injection has been proposed as an alternative for characterization of the perfusion defects. Fifty-six patients received 5-min adenosine infusion. The stress dose of 99mTc-teboroxime was injected at 4.5 min and stress imaging with a single-headed SPECT gamma camera was started at 6 min, washout imaging followed immediately. At 20 min, the rest tracer dose was injected at rest and imaging was started at 21.5 min. The reversibility of the perfusion defects on the washout and rest images was compared visually and quantitatively. There was no statistical difference in the number of stress defects that improved on the washout and rest images. The visual interpretation of the perfusion abnormalities was confirmed by quantitative analysis of relative segmental activity. Thus, 99mTc-teboroxime-adenosine washout myocardial perfusion imaging can be safely and quickly accomplished. Detected reversibility of the perfusion defects did not significantly differ from reversibility observed on the rest images.