A comparison of the clinical relevance of thallium-201 and technetium-99m-methoxyisobutyl-isonitrile for the evaluation of myocardial blood flow.
Thallium-201 is at present the radiotracer of choice for the clinical evaluation of myocardial blood flow. Although different technetium-99m-isonitrile agents have been synthesised recently, only 99mTc-methoxyisobutyl-isonitrile (99mTc-MIBI) has proved to hold promise for clinical implementation. The myocardial distribution of 201Tl and 99mTc-MIBI was compared in a group of 20 patients, who underwent both 201Tl single photon emission computed tomography and 99mTc-MIBI study as well as coronary angiography. The sensitivity for predicting a lesion ranged from 25% to 88% in different areas of the heart and was comparable for the two radiopharmaceuticals. The specificity was greater than 80% for all regions except the inferior region where a specificity of 58% obtained by 99mTc-MIBI was better than the low specificity of 17% obtained with 201Tl (P less than 0.008).
Herbst
C P
CP
Department of Biophysics, University of the Orange Free State, Bloemfontein.
Theron
H D
HD
van Aswegen
A
A
Kleynhans
P H
PH
Otto
A C
AC
Minnaar
P C
PC
D000790:Angiocardiography; D003326:Coronary Circulation; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009570:Nitriles; D013667:Technetium; D013794:Thallium Radioisotopes; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon
D009570:Nitriles; D013794:Thallium Radioisotopes; C055887:2-methoxyisobutylisonitrile; D013667:Technetium