Positron emission tomography heart studies

Bengel FM, Permanetter B, Ungerer M, Nekolla SG, Schwaiger M. Relationship between altered sympathetic innervation, oxidative metabolism and contractile function in the cardiomyopathic human heart a non-invasive study using positron emission tomography. Eur Heart J 2001 22 1594-1600... 

L-[ N]Alanine has been administered to rabbits, which were killed 5 min after injection. Pancreas/liver concentration ratios of 1.8 and 2.3 were reported for barbiturate-anesthetized and unanesthetized animals, respectively. The kidneys contained about 20% higher concentrations than did the liver (45). Label content of the liver itself was not reported. In gamma camera studies of hmnans, imaging of the heart and pancreas was reported with l-[ N]alanine (46). l-[ N]alanine has also been used to image the human myocardium and pancreas by positron emission tomography (47). It should be noted, however, that radioactivity derived from dl-[1- C] alanine did not localize in either organ in human subjects (48). 

The isotopes of rubidium have been of value in medicine for over two decades as tracers for coronary collated and renal blood flow tests [8,9]. More recently, they have been used with noninvasive positron emission tomography to evaluate brain function [10] and in similar studies of heart and brain [11,12]. 

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