Analysis of left ventricular function from gated first-pass and multiple gated equilibrium acquisitions.

99mTechnetium-sestamibi is a new myocardial perfusion imaging agent that offers significant physical advantages over 201thallium for myocardial perfusion imaging. One of these advantages is that it can be used in the assessment of ventricular function by means of first-pass radionuclide angiography (FPRNA), acquired during the injection of the tracer. In this study we compared gated list mode first-pass acquisition with 99mTc-sestamibi (FP-MIBI) to multiple gated equilibrium radionuclide ventriculography (MUGA) with 99mTc-labelled red blood cells for the determination of global left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). The study population consisted of 20 patients (mean age 54 years) who were submitted to stress-rest perfusion imaging. Resting FPRNA was performed using 99mTc-sestamibi and the reference data were acquired within a week with the MUGA technique. A linear correlation between FP LVEF and MUGA LVEF gave an r = 0.974 (p < 0.01). Diastolic and systolic timing and velocity parameters had lower correlations between these two methods. We conclude that global LVEF can be precisely measured with 99mTc-sestamibi when compared to usually employed MUGA technique with 99mTc-labelled red blood cells.