Abstract
Twenty rats (Charles River CD) mean weight 223gm, were divided into two groups: 10 control rats (CntR) kept in room air, and 10 hypoxic rats (HypR) kept in a hypobaric chamber (air at 380 mmHg absolute). At two weeks all the animals were weighed and injected intravenously with 50uCi thallium-201. After 10 min. the animals were exsanguinated. The RV and left ventricles (LV) were separated and weighed. Thallium-201 radioactivity of RV and LV was measured in a gamma well counter. The arterial tree of the lungs was injected with micropaque gelatin and the alveolar tree inflated and fixed for histology. The HypR did not grow well and were polycythemic. The HypR showed significant RV hypertrophy; LV/RV mass ratio (MR) = 2.4 mean; CntR-MR = 3.8 mean (p<.0005). LV/RV thallium-activity ratio (TAR) correlated well with the MR in both HypR and CntR (r=.962 where MR =.863 TAR + .27). HypR vs CntR showed histologic changes of hypoxic pulmonary hypertension: i.e. increased muscularity of small intracinar pulmonary arteries (p<.013), abnormal extension of muscle into small arteries (p<.004) and decreased number of peripheral arteries (p<.0005). We conclude that myocardial thallium-201 uptake reflects and quantitates LV/RV mass ratio which, in our model, included normal and abnormal (RV hypertrophy associated with hypoxic pulmonary hypertension). This may have clinical application in the external detection of right ventricular hypertrophy with the gamma camera.
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Rabinovitch, M., Fischer, K., Gamble, W. et al. QUANTITATION OF RIGHT VENTRICULAR (RV) HYPERTROPHY WITH THALLIUM-201 IN CHRONICALLY HYPOXIC RATS. Pediatr Res 11, 397 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-197704000-00170
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-197704000-00170