Diagnosis of Myocardial Infarction with Tc-99m Glucarate

We will develop a noninvasive hyperacute diagnostic reagent for acute myocardial infarct detectionvisualization. It should be a low-tech, technetium-99m based reagent which can be used with simple gare already available in almost all hospitals in the US. It should be sensitive and be able to demarvery early after the on-set of chest pain (i.e. within 1 to 3 hours) which should enable monitoringthrombolytic intervention. Tc-99m labeled glucaric acid is such a reagent which localizes very quickmyocardial infarction. It is a radiolabeled natural metabolite which exist as the major organic acidfound in the blood in man. It is non-toxic and nonimmunogenic but being similar to glucose, may utiltransport system. However, glucaric acid possessing 2 carboxylic acid residues, should not be able tcell membranes. The mechanism of localization and targeting intracellularly will be investigated. Atequivocal diagnosis for acute myocardial infarction is about one-third of 1.5 million new infarcts aestablishment of such a reagent for hyperacute diagnosis of myocardial infarction should facilitateand thereby conserve scarce health care resources. It should reduce or eliminate inappropriate hospivery fast rule-out or confirmatory diagnosis.