Quantitative analysis of cardiac function: comparison of electro-cardiogram dual gated single photon emission tomography, planar radionuclide ventriculogram and contrast ventriculography in the determination of LV volume and ejection fraction.

A dual gated tomography (DGT) program for end systolic and end diastolic acquisition and subsequent processing for calculation of LVEF, end diastolic and end systolic volumes (EDV, ESV) has been evaluated in 20 healthy volunteers (25 years–40 years) and 45 patients (25 years–60 years): 20 with ischaemic heart disease and 25 with valvular heart disease (VHD). All had biplane multigated blood pool (MUGA) studies in the 40° LAO projection using in vivo 99mTc- RBCs, immediately followed by DGT. The results in the patients group were correlated with contrast ventriculography (CV). In the volunteer group, the normal values for LVEF, EDV and ESV measured with DGT were found to be 63%±10%, 91 ml±6 ml and 30 ml±6 ml and r value for the LVEF=0.91 compared with MUGA. In the IHD group, r values compared with CV were 0.915 and 0.97 for the EDV and ESV and 0.934 for the LVEF. Compared with the MUGA, the r value for LVEF was 0.883. In the VHD group, r values were 0.98 for both the EDV and ESV and 0.948 for the LVEF (P<0.002) compared with CV and 0.789 for the LVEF compared with the MUGA. We feel that DGT is an accurate and reproducible technique for LV function measurements.