Planar myocardial perfusion imaging with technetium-99m-teboroxime: comparison by vascular territory with thallium-201 and coronary angiography.

Myocardial perfusion agents labeled with 99mTc offer improved physical imaging properties compared to 201TI. Teboroxime is a new 99mTc-labeled compound for myocardial perfusion imaging that shows a high myocardial extraction and rapid clearance. Sixty-seven patients underwent planar teboroxime imaging with a rapid acquisition protocol. Agreement of teboroxime and 201TI for the presence or absence of disease occurred in 56/65 patients (86%). There was agreement (normal or abnormal) between the two agents in 156/195 vessels (80%) and 457/585 segments (78%). When abnormal segments (ischemia or infarction) were compared, teboroxime showed significantly more ischemic segments (89/135, 66%) than did 201TI (73/135, 54%, p < 0.05). Teboroxime offers accuracy comparable to 201TI for the diagnosis of coronary artery disease and may improve the detection of ischemic or viable myocardium. In addition, its rapid myocardial clearance permits stress/rest imaging in 60-90 min.