Evaluation of the significance of scintillation angiocardiography for determination of the left ventricular volume.

A method for the determination of the left ventricular volume by scintillation angiocardiography following a peripheral venous injection of a radioactive isotope was described. Salient points in its methodology were as follows: 1. This volume study was composed of non-gated scintillation angiocardiography and cumulative gated scintiphotography. 2. The non-gated scintillation data were stored into video recording system. 3. The gated scintiphotography was performed during a play-back of non-gated scintillation data, opening the gate at desired points of time during a cardiac cycle. 4. The left ventricular scintillation image was photographied in life-size on x-ray film by superimposing, 10-20 times, the gated image of the several consecutive heart beats during the "left ventricular phase" of the dilution of intravenously injected radionuclide. For validation of this method, the stroke volume obtained with this method was compared with that obtained by precordial radionuclide dilution curve recordable during the non-gated scintillation angiocardiography, and also with that obtained by non-simultaneous radiocardiography. It was concluded that the present method may be sufficiently accurate for clinical use.