[Left ventricular systolic wall motion after exercise stress and myocardial perfusion in patients with ischemic heart disease--investigation by ECG gated myocardial tomography].

To investigate regional left ventricular (LV) wall motion (WM) after recovery from myocardial ischemia, we performed ECG-gated myocardial perfusion tomography with 99mTc-MIBI (G-SPECT) in patients with ischemic heart disease (IHD). In addition, we compared the left ventricular (LV) systolic function obtained by G-SPECT at rest with that obtained by contrast left ventriculography (LVG). We performed G-SPECT at 30 minutes after exercise stress (Ex-30) and 3 hours after exercise (rest). LVWM and LV ejection fractions (EF) were analyzed by the QGS (quantitative gated SPECT) program. The LV was divided into 9 segments and regional WM (RWM) was analyzed quantitatively. In addition, myocardial perfusion was assessed quantitatively. In 64 patients with several different types of heart disease, EF obtained by G-SPECT correlated well with LVG-EF (r = 0.907, p < 0.001), and RWM of G-SPECT coincided well with that of LVG (kappa value 0.67, p < 0.01). Eighty patients with suspected IHD were divided according to Ex-Rest myocardial perfusion. In 83% of patients with Ex-induced perfusion abnormalities disappeared completely at rest, and in 58% of patients with Ex-induced abnormalities disappeared incompletely, RWM abnormalities which were observed at Ex-30 improved at rest and as did EF. In 79% of patients with a fixed defect (FD), RWM abnormalities and EF at Ex-30 did not differ with those at rest, but in 12% of the patients, the RWM abnormality of Ex-30 improved at rest. In most myocardial segments that had recovered from transient ischemia, RWM abnormalities persisted at least 30 minutes after Ex (stunning). In a small portion of the myocardial segments regarded as having myocardial necrosis because of a fixed perfusion abnormality, RWM abnormalities at Ex-30 improved at rest. These segments were supposed to contain viable myocardium. In conclusion, G-SPECT is a powerful method for clarifying the relation between the regional systolic function and myocardial perfusion.