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Imaging Small Pulmonary Ischemic Lesions after Radioactive Carbon Monoxide Inhalation

University of California School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California

Correspondence: For reprints contact: G. V. Taplin, Nuclear Medicine Research Laboratory, Dept. of Radiological Sciences, Center for Health Sciences (Rm. B2-085K CHS), Los Angeles, CA 90024.

ABSTRACT

A new method is described for imaging small ischemic regions in the lung immediately after a single breath of radioactive carbon monoxide (¹¹CO). A tungsten-collimated scintillation camera is used to visualize the 0.51-MeV annihilation photons due to the ¹¹C. In normal dogs the entire field is cleared of ¹¹CO within 10 sec. However, in dogs with experimentally occluded 2-mm-diam segmental arteries, the ischemic but well-ventilated segment appears as a region of persistent high radioactivity, due most likely to temporary entrapment of ¹¹CO-labeled red blood cells in the ischemic region. This technique also provides a simple noninvasive means for instantly labeling the systemic circulation without left heart catheterization.