title: Assessment of left ventricular function during upright treadmill exercise with tantalum 178 and multiwire gamma camera.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Prior studies with first-pass radionuclide angiography (RNA) during treadmill exercise used a single-crystal (Anger) or multicrystal gamma camera and technetium 99m tracers. Motion correction, when done, used point sources, which limited correction to only plane movement.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We examined the performance of a multiwire gamma camera (MWGC), generator-produced tantalum 178, and a novel method of motion correction during treadmill exercise testing. We studied 100 patients in whom rest and stress gated tomographic myocardial perfusion images were obtained. Eight patients were excluded because of incomplete data. There were 53 men and 39 women aged 52 +/- 12 years. The resting left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction (EF) was 61% +/- 12% by gated single photon emission computed tomography. Stress myocardial perfusion was normal in 83 patients and abnormal in 9 patients. The resting RNA EF in the upright position was 57% +/- 12% (r = 0.52, P = .0001 vs gated EF). At peak exercise, the EF by MWGC was 60% +/- 26% if uncorrected and 69% +/- 13% after motion correction. Among the 80 patients with normal perfusion and normal resting EF by gated single photon emission computed tomography, a normal response to exercise was seen in 52 (63%) without motion correction and 74 (89%) with motion correction (P < .05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Assessment of LV function is feasible with MWGC. The motion-corrected images significantly improved the results.
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiovascular Disease, Department of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1900 University Boulevard, Birmingham, AL 35294-0006, USA. jheo@uab.edu
authors.forename: Jaekyeong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Heo
authors.forename: Thein
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Htay
authors.forename: Deval
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mehta
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Jeffrey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lacy
authors.forename: Ami E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Iskandrian
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D005080:Exercise Test / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011187:Posture; D011868:Radioisotopes; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013635:Tantalum; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D018487:Ventricular Dysfunction, Left / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*
chemical_list: D011868:Radioisotopes; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D013635:Tantalum