Evaluation of left ventricular diastolic function at rest and during exercise by gated radionuclide angiocardiography in coronary artery disease patients.
The peak filling rate (PFR) is an index of the diastolic function and has been proposed as an excellent parameter for the evaluation and early detection of left ventricular (LV) dysfunction. This study contributes to the assessment of LV diastolic function at rest and during submaximal exercise in 19 normal subjects and in 42 patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). The PFR was compared to the ejection fraction (EF) and the peak ejection rate (PER)--both indexes of systolic LV function--after acquiring a high-resolution time-activity curve (time/frame between 10 and 30 msec) with gated radionuclide angiocardiography. In 23 patients with normal EF at rest (greater than or equal to 50%), PFR and PER were abnormally low in 87% and 43% of the cases respectively. During submaximal exercise in 13 CAD patients, EF, PFR and PER varied very little from baseline values but were significantly reduced compared to the values of normal subjects. The PFR proved to be a very sensitive indicator of LV dysfunction in coronary patients but was not capable of discriminating between one-, two- or three-vessel disease. Our results tend to show the PFR to be a good indicator of LV dysfunction at rest and during exercise and its usefulness for the assessment of LV function is becoming more and more evident in clinical practice.
Cardiology Center University Hospital, Turin, Italy.
S
S
Ciaroni
J
J
Delonca
V
V
Podio
A
A
Righetti
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005080:Exercise Test; D005260:Female; D015637:Gated Blood-Pool Imaging; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D016277:Ventricular Function, Left / Q000502:physiology*