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. 2009 Feb 3;23(10):719–722. doi: 10.1002/clc.4960231007

The assessment of myocardial viability and hibernation using resting thallium imaging

Pasquale Perrone‐Filardi 1,✉, Massimo Chiariello 1, Richard Underwood 2
PMCID: PMC6654779  PMID: 11061048

Abstract

Rest‐redistribution thallium‐201 imaging is widely used to assess recovery of regional systolic dysfunction in patients with chronic coronary artery disease. In several studies, this technique has demonstrated very high sensitivity but reduced specificity, as reported in general for radionuclide imaging. In clinical terms, this implicates that many dysfunctional territories will not recover after revascularization despite a substantial amount of tracer uptake. Yet, the amount of tracer uptake in a given myocardial segment, although not perfect, remains the best indicator for predicting reversible dysfunction. In fact, the occurrence of redistribution after rest injection is not very common and it does not substantially contribute to the accuracy of the test. However, it is still undetermined whether the presence of redistribution is relevant for prognostic implications.

Keywords: viability, coronary artery disease, radionuclide imaging, systolic dysfunction

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