To evaluate cardiac complications associated with electrical injury, 7 patients with high-tension electrical injury (6,600
V alternating current) underwent
201Tl and
123I-metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) imaging in addition to conventional electrocardiographic and echocardiographic assessments.
Electrocardiography showed transient atrial fibrillation, second degree atrioventricular block, ST-segment depression, and
sinus bradycardia in each patient. Echocardiography showed mild hypokinesis of the anterior wall in only 2 patients, but
201Tl and
123I-MIBG myocardial scintigraphy whowed an abnormal scan image in 6/7 and 5/6 patients, respectively. Decreased radionuclide
accumulation was seen primarily in areas extending from the anterior wall to the septum. Decreased radionuclide accumulation
was smaller in extent and milder in degree in
123I-MIBG than in
201Tl imaging. These results suggest that even in patients without definite evidence of severe cardiac complications in conventional
examinations, radionuclide imaging detects significant damage due to high-tension electrical injury, in which sympathetic
nerve dysfunction might be milder than myocardial cell damage.
Key words electrical injury - cardiac complication - thallium myocardial imaging -
123I-metaiodobenzylguanidine