Assessment of left ventricular function using solid-state gamma camera equipped with a highly-sensitive collimator.
OBJECTIVE
The solid-state gamma camera 2020tc Imager (Digirad, CA) is now commercially available and has been clinically applied. The present study evaluates the feasibility of equilibrium radionuclide ventriculography (ERNV) within a 3 min period using this camera equipped with a highly sensitive collimator.


METHODS
ERNV was performed from the best septal position (left anterior oblique view) in 20 patients with cardiac disease using a single detector anger-type gamma camera equipped with a low-energy, high-resolution collimator. Immediately thereafter, we performed a second ERNV using the solid-state gamma camera equipped with a highly sensitive collimator. Acquisition periods were 10 and 3 min, respectively.


RESULTS
Significantly more counts were collected from over the left ventricle with the solid-state gamma camera over 3 min than those with the anger-type gamma camera over 10 min (817.1 +/- 387.8 k counts vs. 668.2 +/- 327.4 k counts, p < 0.01). The left ventricular ejection fraction obtained from ERNV data using the solid-state gamma camera correlated closely with those acquired by the anger-type gamma camera (r = 0.94, p < 0.0001, SEE = 5.93%).


CONCLUSIONS
The results showed that the solid-state gamma camera could assess left ventricular function with excellent data collection efficiency and high reliability.
Department of Radiology, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan. s-kumita@nms.ac.jp
Shin-ichiro
S
Kumita
Keiji
K
Tanaka
Keiichi
K
Cho
Naoki
N
Sato
Hidenobu
H
Nakajo
Masahiro
M
Toba
Yoshimitsu
Y
Fukushima
Sunao
S
Mizumura
Teruo
T
Takano
Tatsuo
T
Kumazaki
D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D015902:Gamma Cameras; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012666:Semiconductors; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013318:Stroke Volume; D014159:Transducers; D018487:Ventricular Dysfunction, Left / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*