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We studied 142 consecutively autopsied patients prospectively to determine the frequency and clinical importance of right-sided endocardial lesions in patients who had undergone flow-directed pulmonary-artery catheterization within one month of death. Of the 55 catheterized patients, 29 (53 per cent) had one or more right-sided endocardial lesions: 12 (22 per cent) had subendocardial hemorrhage, 11 (20 per cent) sterile thrombus, 2 (4 per cent) hemorrhage and thrombus, and 4 (7 per cent) infective endocarditis. Of 41 lesions seen in the 29 patients, 23 (56 per cent) were located on the pulmonic valve, 6 (15 per cent) on the tricuspid valve, 6 (15 per cent) in the right atrium, 4 (10 per cent) in the right ventricle, and 2 (5 per cent) in the main pulmonary artery. All four patients with infective endocarditis had had positive antemortem blood cultures while the catheter was in place, but in only one had the diagnosis of endocarditis been suspected clinically. The unusual locations of the infected vegetations (on the pulmonic valve in three and in the right atrium in one) and the similar location of the uninfected lesions suggest that the infective endocarditis was a consequence of catheter-induced endocardial damage with concurrent or subsequent bacteremia. Among the 87 non-catheterized patients, there were two subendocardial hemorrhages and one resolving right atrial thrombus. We conclude that endocardial damage from flow-directed pulmonary-artery catheterization is common and that right-sided infective endocarditis should be suspected in bacteremic catheterized patients.

The relation of degree of regional wall motion abnormality by equilibrium radionuclide angiocardiography to the presence and mural extent of regional necrosis or scar at autopsy was evaluated in 23 autopsy patients who had a history of myocardial infarction and had equilibrium radionuclide angiocardiography within 40 days of death. Of the 228 regions evaluated by equilibrium radionuclide angiocardiography, 135 had abnormal regional wall motion and 102 (76%) of these 135 regions had evidence of myocardial infarction at autopsy. The overall sensitivity, specificity and predictive values of regional wall motion abnormality for regional necrosis or scar were 69, 59 and 76%, respectively. Of the 33 false positive regions, 20 (61%) had severe narrowing of the coronary artery supplying that region, 13 (39%) were adjacent to a region with a myocardial infarction and almost half (16 [48%]) were in the lateral wall. Eighty-three (36%) of the 228 regions were akinetic or dyskinetic, 52 (23%) were hypokinetic and 93 (41%) were normal. Sixty-three (76%) of the 83 akinetic/dyskinetic segments had transmural myocardial infarction at autopsy, 14 (17%) had nontransmural myocardial infarction and only 6 (7%) contained no necrosis or scar. In contrast, 14 (27%) of 52 hypokinetic segments had transmural myocardial infarction, 11 (21%) had nontransmural myocardial infarction and 27 (52%) were normal. Thus, the most severe regional wall motion abnormality (akinesia/dyskinesia) almost always indicates regional myocardial infarction which is usually transmural whereas less severe dysfunction (hypokinesia) is not necessarily associated with regional necrosis or scar. The severity of regional dysfunction must be considered if equilibrium radionuclide angiocardiography is used to evaluate the presence and mural extent of myocardial infarction within a region.