Right and left ventricular volume and ejection fraction by tomographic gated blood-pool scintigraphy.
Tomographic techniques separate overlying structures, permitting measurements of absolute ventricular volumes. The purpose of this study was to determine absolute right and left ventricular volume and ejection fraction measurements with tomographic gated equilibrium blood-pool scintigraphy (TMUGA) compared to MRI and conventional planar scintigraphy.


METHODS
Eighteen patients were studied. Ventricular volumes for TMUGA and MRI were calculated by modified Simpson's rule. TMUGA regions were defined by constraints including phase analysis, intensity threshold and visual inspection. MRI studies were acquired with a fast gradient-echo, ECG-gated, breath-hold technique and boundaries were defined by a semiautomated contour method. Conventional gated first-pass radionuclide angiography (FP) and planar gated equilibrium blood-pool scintigraphy (PMUGA) were performed for RV EF and LV EF, respectively.


RESULTS
TMUGA absolute right ventricular volumes showed excellent-correlation with MRI for both right ventricular volumes (r = 0.91, slope = 0.90, s.e.e. = 15.7) and left ventricular volumes (r = 0.96, slope = 0.88, s.e.e. = 18.2). For left ventricular ejection fraction, TMUGA also showed excellent correlation with MRI (r = 0.94, slope = 1.10, s.e.e. = 9.0) and planar MUGA (r = 0.97, slope = 1.23, s.e.e. = 6.2). For right ventricular ejection fraction, TMUGA showed good correlation with both MRI (r = 0.88, slope = 0.79, s.e.e. = 6.0) and first-pass planar scintigraphy (r = 0.86, slope = 1.2, s.e.e. = 7.9).


CONCLUSIONS
Tomographic gated blood-pool scintigraphy absolute right and left ventricular volumes and ejection fractions show good correlation with accepted techniques. Further studies are necessary to define the reproducibility of this method.
Chin
B B
BB
Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, Maryland 21287, USA.
Bloomgarden
D C
DC
Xia
W
W
Kim
H J
HJ
Fayad
Z A
ZA
Ferrari
V A
VA
Berlin
J A
JA
Axel
L
L
Alavi
A
A
D002306:Cardiac Volume / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D015637:Gated Blood-Pool Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D006321:Heart / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D019028:Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Cine; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D013318:Stroke Volume / Q000502:physiology*; D016277:Ventricular Function, Left / Q000502:physiology*; D016278:Ventricular Function, Right / Q000502:physiology*