Pyrophosphate heart scan in patients with progressive systemic sclerosis.

Abstract

SUMMARY Scintigraphic examination of the myocardium, using 1Tc-labelled pyrophosphate, was carried out in 17 patients suffering from systemic sclerosis. This connective tissue disorder very often affects the myocardium secondarily. The results of the cardiac scan were compared with the information obtained from the electrocardiogram of systolic time intervals. In addition, spirometry was undertaken to detect a potential relation between cardiac and pulmonary involvement. The scan was found to be positive in seven patients and electrocardiographic findings were pathological in five patients only. The systolic time intervals were abnormal in three patients only. A ventilation disturbance was recorded in 10 patients. No clear relation was found between the results of the individual examinations. It is concluded that pyrophosphate heart scintigraphy may detect myocardial impairment in some cases of systemic sclerosis before it is manifested by heart failure. Examination of systolic time intervals is of little importance.

Non-invasive assessment of early cardiac involvement in systemic sclerosis

“…Recently it has been shown that thallium-201 scintigrams and pyrophosphate scans can detect perfusion defects or cell necrosis in the myocardium in patients with systemic sclerosis (Alexander et al, 1981;Duska et al, 1982). Follansbee et al (1984) studied 23 patients (6, 23%, had clinical evidences of cardiac involvement) and found that 20 patients (77%) had abnormal thallium redistribution scan.…”

Pyrophosphate Scintigraphy and other Non-Invasive Methods in the Detection of Cardiac Involvement in Some Systemic Connective Tissue Diseases

“…lished (6). In the present paper we report the findings in systemic lupus erythematosus, polymyositis and spondylitis ankylopoetica.…”

“…Pyrophosphate does not accumulate into lesions of earlier date (7). Our team was the first to use scintigraphic detection of a cardiac involvement in systemic connective tissue disease (6). The ECG, on the other hand, detects only such a type of heart damage which manifests itself with a disorder in the electrophysiology of the organ.…”

The Pyrophosphate Heart Scintigram in Children with Progressive Muscular Dystrophy

“…Positive findings have also been reported in some cases of angina pectoris (9), of myocarditis (11) and pericarditis (13), following an impairment of the myocardium with doxorubicine (6), after defibrillation (2), in cases of heart aneurysma (12) or heart contusion (19) as well as after impairment of the myocardium caused by radiation (17). In addition, a few authors have reported positive scintigraphic findings in cardiomyopathies of different etiology (4,20). In our opinion, the pyrophosphate scintigram is of considerable value in the diagnosis of cardiomyopathies which is difficult when using routine examination methods only (5).…”