Technetium‐99m stannous pyrophosphate myocardial scintigraphy: Serial imaging to detect myocardial infarcts in patients

Typically, technetium‐99m stannous pyrophosphate (^99mTc‐PYP) myocardial scintigrams become abnormal within 10‐12 h following acute myocardial infarction. Ordinarily, the ^99mTc‐PYP scintigrams become increasingly abnormal between 24 and 72 h following the infarct and then become normal 6‐7 days after the event. However, occasional patients and their ^99mTc‐PYP myocardial scintigrams deviate from this expected pattern by initially developing an abnormal ^99mTc‐PYP scintigram as late as 4‐5 days following an acute myocardial infarction. Others retain “persistently abnormal” ^99mTc‐PYP myocardial scintigrams after their myocardial infarcts. The clinical importance and potential prognostic importance of these deviations from the expected patterns with ^99mTc‐PYP myocardial imaging are discussed and the need for serial myocardial imaging is emphasized.