Digital Imaging of Regional Glucose Metabolism of the Heart with a MWPC

The digital imaging of carbohydrate consumption in myocardial tissue has been performed by using a deposit tracer of glucose metabolism (3H-deoxyglucose) and a specially designed Multiwire Proportional Chamber (MWPC) that acts as a position sensitive radioactivity detector. The resolving power (≃1.5 mm FWHM), sensitivity (≃10-1Bq/cm2), efficiency (≃10%) and uniformity (±4%) of the system are shown and MWPC digital autoradiographs of canine heart in different pathophysiological conditions are presented.