Myocardial perfusion of infarcted and normal myocardium in propofol-anesthetized minipigs using 82Rubidium PET

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Cardiac Rubidium-82 (82Rb) positron-emission-tomography (PET) is a good method for quantification of myocardial blood flow in man. Quantification of myocardial blood flow in animals to evaluate new treatment strategies or to understand underlying disease is also of great interest but raises some challenges. Animals, which have been anesthetized during PET acquisition, might react differently to used stress medications, and therefore difficulties might exist while evaluating the resulting PET images using standard software packages from commercial vendors optimized for human hearts. Furthermore propofol, used for anesthesia, can influence myocardial perfusion and coronary flow reserve due to its vasorelaxant effect, and interactions might exist between propofol and used stress agents, potentially affecting the result of the examination. We present cardiac 82Rb-PET studies performed in propofol-anesthetized minipigs with normal and infarcted myocardium stressed with both adenosine and dipyridamole. Despite the mentioned challenges, we were able to trace the small minipig heart with software designed for human cardiac PET and to achieve blood flow measurements comparable with results in humans with both adenosine and dipyridamole. We found dipyridamole to be a superior stress agent for this experimental setup. Finally, we were able to clearly identify the myocardial perfusion defect after an induced myocardial infarction.

Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Nuclear Cardiology
Volume23
Issue number3
Pages (from-to)599-603
Number of pages5
ISSN1071-3581
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2016

    Research areas

  • A2A adenosine receptor agonists, coronary artery disease, infarction, myocardial, myocardial perfusion imaging, PET, pharmacologic stress

ID: 159919738