Quantitative analysis of regional wall motion by gated myocardial positron emission tomography: validation and comparison with left ventriculography.

Electrocardiographically gated positron emission tomography (ECG-gated PET) with [13N] ammonia was used to assess regional myocardial wall motion of left ventricle (LV) based on a nongeometric method in nine healthy volunteers and 16 patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). Three transverse sections (upper, middle, and lower) with 16-mm intervals at end-diastole (ED) and end-systole (ES) were analyzed. The LV wall was divided into eight segments with every 30 degrees from septal wall to lateral wall. Based on circumferential profile analysis, the percent count increase [( ES count - ED count) divided ED count x 100) in each segment was analyzed as an index of regional wall motion. In the study of normal controls, the percent count increase was the lowest (32.9 +/- 7.2%) at septal wall of the lower slice and the highest (72.8 +/- 26.5%) at lateral wall of the upper slice (p less than 0.01). In five normal controls, the percent count increase was compared with the percent systolic wall thickening analyzed by magnetic resonance imaging, and a good correlation was observed (r = 0.84). In the study of patients with CAD, the percent count increase was compared with wall motion assessed by left ventriculography (LVG). The percent count increase significantly decreased as wall motion on LVG worsened. In addition, the value in normal controls tended to be higher than that in the segments with normal wall motion in patients with CAD. Thus, quantitative analysis of regional wall thickening was feasible by ECG-gated PET, which should be useful for combined analysis of regional function, perfusion and metabolism in patients with CAD.