[Experimental validation of a method for the early diagnosis of the infection of vascular prostheses using 99m-TC-labelled leukocytes].

Experiments on 9 dogs were staged for a study of a method of early diagnosis of infectivity of vascular prostheses of the abdominal aorta with the help of 99m-Tc-labelled leukocytes. A sterile synthetic vascular prosthesis was used for prosthetics of the abdominal aorta in the 1st control group of animals, a prosthesis, previously infected with St. aureus, was used in the 2nd group, a sterile prosthesis with its subsequent infecting by i.v. injection of St. aureus was used in the 3rd group. The role of antibiotic therapy in infectivity of vascular prostheses was studied on the animals of the 3rd group. A radionuclide study with autologous 99m-Tc-labelled leukocytes was conducted using the Deina-2 camera (Picker). Visualization of the prostheses was unobserved in the 1st control group; in the 2nd group the accumulation of 99m-Tc-leukocytes in the zone of the prosthesis and its visualization on the 4th-5th min. were noted; in the 3rd group the prosthesis was visualized on the 10th-15th min. After antibiotic therapy in the 3rd group visualization of the prosthesis was undetectable. The proposed method permitted visualization of a zone of infection in the early postoperative period, observation of the time course of infection development, and assessment of the efficacy of antibiotic therapy.