[Reverse redistribution in the myocardial perfusion scan with [201]Tl]

Reverse redistribution pattern is defined as decreased activity in the myocardium in the rest phase of the myocardial perfusion scan in comparison with the stress images. There are many studies concerning the etiology and clinical significant of this phenomenon in nuclear medicine literature. The dominant idea about etiology of reverse redistribution is early wash out of the radiotracer from the myocardium. There is rather unaminous agreement among researchers about viability of the areas of reverse redistribution and the majority of the studies point to existence of viable tissue in these regions. However from prognostic point of view, this issue is much more controversial. In this review, we tried to summarize the current literature and reach a guideline for practical significance of reverse redistribution in every day work of nuclear medicine specialists