How reliable is myocardial imaging in the diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction?

Myocardial scintigraphic techniques available presently allow a sensitive and relatively specific diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction when they are used correctly, although every technique has definite limitations. Small myocardial infarcts (less than 3 gm.) may be missed, and there are temporal limitations in the usefulness of the scintigraphic techniques. The development of tomographic methodology that may be used with single-photon radionuclide emitters (including technetium and thallium-201) will allow the detection of relatively small abnormalities in myocardial perfusion and regions of myocardial infarction and will help to provide a more objective interpretation of the myocardial scintigrams. The use of overlay techniques allowing simultaneous assessment of myocardial perfusion, infarct-avid imaging, and radionuclide ventriculograms will provide insight into the relevant aspects of the extent of myocardial damage, the relationship of damage to myocardial perfusion, and the functional impact of myocardial infarction on ventricular performance.