BACKGROUND Both [13N]ammonia and [15O]water have been used to quantify myocardial blood flow with positron emission tomography using appropriate tracer kinetic models. A direct comparison of the two tracers with radioactive microspheres has not been performed in the same experimental preparation. METHODS AND RESULTS The two tracers have been tested for myocardial blood flow quantification in closed-chest dogs with circumflex coronary stenosis or permanent occlusion at rest and during adenosine-induced hyperemia. [13N]ammonia- and [15O]water-derived myocardial blood flow values have been compared with radiolabeled microspheres. Validation studies consisted of simultaneous measurements of blood flow with positron emission tomography and microspheres over a wide range of flow values. Blood pool and regional tissue activity curves were fitted with a three-compartment model for [13N]ammonia with and without arterial metabolite correction and with a single-tissue-compartment model for [15O]water. A correction for finite-resolution effect before the fit was also applied. In large regions of interest (5 cm3), a good correlation between the microsphere method and [13N]ammonia (with metabolite correction) was obtained (y = 3 + 0.78x, r = 0.94). The correlation with microspheres was slightly better with [15O]water (y = -3 + 0.89x, r = 0.97). Similar correlations were achieved in smaller regions of interest (1 cm3) as well as in akinetic segments and in central infarct regions. CONCLUSIONS Positron emission tomography with appropriate tracer kinetic models using [13N]ammonia and [15O]water provides an accurate quantitative method for measuring regional myocardial blood flow over a wide range of flow values in normally contracting or akinetic canine myocardium in the absence and in the presence of infarction.

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The relationship of myocardial O2 consumption (MVO2) to its potential hemodynamic and mechanical determinants was investigated in eight healthy normal volunteers at rest and during infusion of dobutamine (5-10 micrograms.kg-1.min-1). MVO2 was calculated from the monoexponential myocardial clearance of [1-11C]acetate with positron emission tomography, and left ventricular mechanical function was assessed by two-dimensional echocardiography. Infusion of dobutamine increased heart rate by 53%, the tension-time index by 31%, and the rate-pressure product by 116%. Cardiac output (+70%), left ventricular ejection fraction (+24%), total mechanical energy [systolic pressure-volume area, (PVA) +84%], and left ventricular pressure-work index (+100%) also increased during infusion of dobutamine. During infusion of dobutamine, MVO2 increased from 96 +/- 17 to 233 +/- 19 J.min-1.100 g left ventricle-1, while myocardial efficiency (the ratio of PVA to MVO2) decreased from 46 +/- 8 to 35 +/- 4% (P < 0.001 each). MVO2 was best correlated (P < 0.001) with the PVA (r = 0.92) and the pressure-work index (r = 0.92). Infusion of dobutamine also resulted in a significant parallel upward shift of the PVA-MVO2 relationship, indicative of an increase in PVA-independent MVO2. Our data indicate that, in human subjects, MVO2 is mainly related to systolic PVA and that inotropic stimulation with dobutamine results in decreased efficiency of contraction, such as that previously described in isolated hearts.

A regional analysis of cerebral glucose metabolism was carried out in 9 patients with progressive supranuclear palsy by using positron emission tomography with fluorodeoxyglucose as the tracer. A consistent metabolic map of frontal hypometabolism was found in 7 patients. Brain metabolism was normal in 1 subject and diffusely decreased in another. In the 7 patients with selective hypofrontality, motor and premotor areas were severely hypometabolic, while heteromodal association cortex and paralimbic regions were comparatively less affected. Although this pattern of frontal alterations, probably due to disconnection, appeared consistent with the clinical features of the disease, it proved difficult to correlate the metabolic maps with neuropsychological disturbances.

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