Scintigraphic diagnosis of early signs of heart failure and their correction with captopril in patients with myocardial infarction

Twenty patients with acute myocardial infarction received captopril (6,25-25 mg) during first 6-12 hours of the disease and continued to take captopril (12,5-25 mg/day) for 1 year, Twenty patients of control group did not receive captopril. During first 24-48 hours, before discharge and after 6 and 12 months radiocardiopulmonography and equilibrium radionuclide ventriculography were performed in all patients, In captopril treated patients improvement a: parameters of pulmonary hemodynamics (stabilization of circulation time and of its arterial component, of passage time through lungs and right heart) occurred after 6 and 12 months. Prolongation of these times indicative of overload of pulmonary circulation was observed in control group both during hospitalization and at follow-up. In control group more patients had NYHA class II-III heart failure after 1 year and there were more cases of unstable angina during follow-up, a conclusion was made that scintigraphic estimation of parameters of pulmonary circulation in patients with myocardial infarction allowed to reveal signs of concealed heart failure and the use of low dose (up to 25 mg/day) captopril starting with acute period of myocardial infarction resulted in correction of hemodynamic disturbances.