Skip to main content
NCBI home page
British Heart Journal logoLink to British Heart Journal
. 1981 Feb;45(2):198–205. doi: 10.1136/hrt.45.2.198

Quantitative thallium-201 myocardial imaging in assessing right ventricular pressure in patients with congenital heart defects.

M Rabinovitch, K C Fischer, S Treves
PMCID: PMC482510  PMID: 7459178

Abstract

Thallium-201 myocardial scintigraphy was performed in patients with congenital heart defects to determine whether, by quantification of right ventricular isotope uptake, one could assess the degree of right ventricular hypertrophy and so predict the level of right ventricular pressure. A total of 24 patients ranging in age from 7 months to 30 years was studied; 18 were studied before corrective surgery and six after operation. All but three had congenital heart defects which had resulted in pressure and/or volume-overload of the right ventricle. At routine cardiac catheterisation, 20 microCi/kg thallium-201 as thallous chloride was injected through the venous catheter and myocardial images were recorded in anterior and left anterior oblique projections; these were subsequently analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. Insignificant right ventricular thallium-201 counts judged as being less than 1 per cent of the injected dose or less than 0.3 of the left ventricular counts were present in six patients all with right ventricular peak systolic pressure less than 30 mmHg. In the remaining 18 patients there was a good correlation between the right ventricular/left ventricular peak systolic pressure ratio and the right ventricular/left ventricular thallium-201 counts ratio. All patients with right ventricular/left ventricular peak systolic pressure less than 0.5 had right ventricular/left ventricular thallium-201 counts less than 0.4. Qualitative evaluation of right ventricular isotope intensity proved helpful mainly in distinguishing the patients with right ventricular pressures at or above systemic levels. Thus quantitative analysis of myocardial imaging with thallium-201 is of use clinically in patients with congenital heart defects, in assessing the severity of pulmonary stenosis or the presence of pulmonary artery hypertension.

Full text

PDF
198

Images in this article

200Image
on p.200
201Image
on p.201

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Bailey I. K., Come P. C., Kelly D. T., Burow R. D., Griffith L. S., Strauss H. W., Pitt B. Thallium-201 myocardial perfusion imaging in aortic valve stenosis. Am J Cardiol. 1977 Dec;40(6):889–899. doi: 10.1016/0002-9149(77)90039-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Bulkley B. H., Rouleau J., Strauss H. W., Pitt B. Idiopathic hypertrophic subaortic stenosis: detection by thallium 201 myocardial perfusion imaging. N Engl J Med. 1975 Nov 27;293(22):1113–1116. doi: 10.1056/NEJM197511272932202. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Chou T. C., Masangkay M. P., Young R., Conway G. F., Helm R. A. Simple quantitative vectorcardiographic criteria for the diagnosis of right ventricular hypertrophy. Circulation. 1973 Dec;48(6):1262–1267. doi: 10.1161/01.cir.48.6.1262. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Cohen H. A., Baird M. G., Rouleau J. R., Fuhrmann C. F., Bailey I. K., Summer W. R., Strauss H. W., Pitt B. Thallium 201 myocardial imaging in patients with pulmonary hypertension. Circulation. 1976 Nov;54(5):790–795. doi: 10.1161/01.cir.54.5.790. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Hamilton G. W., Trobaugh G. B., Ritchie J. L., Williams D. L., Weaver W. D., Gould K. L. Myocardial imaging with intravenously injected thallium-201 in patients with suspected coronary artery disease: analysis of technique and correlation with electrocardiographic, coronary anatomic and ventriculographic findings. Am J Cardiol. 1977 Mar;39(3):347–354. doi: 10.1016/s0002-9149(77)80087-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Khaja F., Alam M., Goldstein S., Anbe D. T., Marks D. S. Diagnostic value of visualization of the right ventricle using thallium-201 myocardial imaging. Circulation. 1979 Jan;59(1):182–188. doi: 10.1161/01.cir.59.1.182. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Pitt B., Strauss H. W. Myocardial imaging in the noninvasive evaluation of patients with suspected ischemic heart disease. Am J Cardiol. 1976 Apr;37(5):797–806. doi: 10.1016/0002-9149(76)90377-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. RUDOLPH A. M., CAYLER G. G. Cardiac catheterization in infants and children. Pediatr Clin North Am. 1958 Nov;5(4):907–943. doi: 10.1016/s0031-3955(16)30723-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Rabinovitch M., Fisher K., Gamble W., Reid L., Treves S. Thallium-201: quantitation of right ventricular hypertrophy in chronically hypoxic rats. Radiology. 1979 Jan;130(1):223–225. doi: 10.1148/130.1.223. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Rimoldi H. J., Paiva R. E., McAuley P. C., Lev M. Mass indices of the ventricles at autopsy in children. Am Heart J. 1971 Jun;81(6):770–780. doi: 10.1016/0002-8703(71)90081-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Rosenthal A., Tucker C. R., Williams R. G., Khaw K. T., Strieder D., Shwachman H. Echocardiographic assessment of cor pulmonale in cystic fibrosis. Pediatr Clin North Am. 1976 May;23(2):327–344. doi: 10.1016/s0031-3955(16)33274-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Strauer B. E., Bürger S., Büll U. Multifactorial determination of 201thallium uptake of the heart: an experimental study concerning the influence of ventricular mass, perfusion and oxygen consumption. Basic Res Cardiol. 1978 May-Jun;73(3):298–306. doi: 10.1007/BF01906735. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Strauss H. W., Harrison K., Langan J. K., Lebowitz E., Pitt B. Thallium-201 for myocardial imaging. Relation of thallium-201 to regional myocardial perfusion. Circulation. 1975 Apr;51(4):641–645. doi: 10.1161/01.cir.51.4.641. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from British Heart Journal are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES