First pass radionuclide angiography in the measurement of the left ventricular ejection fraction--assessment of the accuracy of a new method
Tzen, K.Y.; Lieu, S.R.
Journal of the Formosan Medical Association 88(4): 416-421
1989
ISSN/ISBN: 0371-7682 PMID: 2794945 Document Number: 328085
This study was designed to validate a modified computer program in evaluating the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) by first pass radionuclide cardioangiography. This program was modified by us from the pulmonary background subtraction method postulated by Gal et al. Another three programs supplied by the computer company were included in the study to compare the accuracy among these program algorithms. From the results of 97 patients undergoing first pass and gated equilibrium cardiac blood pool studies, we found that the measured ejection fractions by these four programs were all correlated well with those by the equilibrium gated cardiac program (r = 0.81-0.86). The latter was already confirmed and verified in a previously published work using a Vanderbilt dynamic cardiac phantom. Except for the LVEF values obtained from our modified program, all values obtained from the other three programs were significantly lower than those obtained by the verified equilibrium program. However, the results obtained from our designed program correlated well with those obtained from the equilibrium method. Furthermore, none of the patient's raw data was rejected by this modified program.