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Thallium imaging is often used to assess myocardial viability and predict improvement in regional systolic function after coronary revascularization. Technetium-labeled sestamibi has imaging characteristics superior to thallium's and is used as a flow tracer in stress studies. However, its use in detecting myocardial viability has been questioned, due to its negligible delayed redistribution.
This study from the University of Virginia prospectively compared rest and delayed thallium-201 with rest technetium-sestamibi imaging in 20 patients with severe chronic CAD and left ventricular dysfunction. All scans were analyzed in 14 segments using quantitative single-photon emission computed tomography, with segments classified as having normal, fi…