BACKGROUND: The issue of blood flow in muscles has been dealt with for many years. However, most often it was assessedqualitatively with standard vascular examinations. The quantitatively perfusion assessment is indispensable in the normal andpathological conditions. Some diseases impair the perfusion mainly in the area of upper limbs. It can be observed in Raynaud’sdisease, vascular occlusive diseases, neurological disturbances, and thermal injuries. Hyperhidrosis of upper limbs after sympathectomyof thoracic part of sympathetic trunk may bring closer the diagnosis statement. Nuclear medicine has the markersand methods that allow for the assessment of the volume of perfusion in muscles. The aim for creating this method andprogram was the development of radioisotope method allowing for quantitative assessment of perfusion in muscles of upperlimbs. This should lead to calculating the perfusion index and its range of normal values in a greater group of patients and tousing this method both in the healthy and pathological conditions.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: 20 patients, age 30.4 ± 7.1 years, who underwent following examinations: qualification to thegroup, medical history, subject examinations, USG of upper limb vessels, anthropometric examinations, biochemical andhormonal blood tests, the assessment of upper limbs with USG Doppler and FMD (flow mediated dilatation), radioisotopeexaminations with gamma camera BrightView XCT by own program RAPUL (Radioisotope Assessment Perfusion of UpperLimb). Acquisitions were started five minutes after intravenous injection of 99mTc-MIBI (metoxyisobutylnitrite). The whole bodyscintigram and scintigrams of arm and forearm muscles in A-P projections were taken.

RESULTS: In the examined patients, the results of anthropometric, biochemical and hormonal test were within the range ofnormal values. In radioisotope quantitative assessment of perfusion, perfusion indexes of left arm were 20 < PI_left < 11.90 andof the right arm 7.00 < PI_right <12.30. The dependency correlation PI_left vs. PI_right was strong r = 0.92036.The values of perfusion symmetry index (IPS) had a normal distribution and were within the following range: 0.9231 < IPS <1.1019.

CONCLUSIONS: The RAPUL method and program allow for quantitative assessment of perfusion in muscles of upper limbs.Developed program has a high repeatability of results. The results in the bigger group will allow for defining the range of normalvalues of perfusion index in muscles of upper limbs at rest. These will be diagnostically used both in healthy (sports medicine,military services) and pathological conditions.