Radionuclide cardiac monitoring system using dual cadmium telluride (CdTe) detectors: specification and some clinical applications.

The construction, physical characteristics, software and some clinical applications of a computerized dual cadmium telluride (CdTe) detectors system for continuous cardiac monitoring are described. The detectors and collimators are small, light and convenient for attachment to the chest wall. Data can be collected at 0.05 s intervals and for up to 3 h. Clinical studies in 33 patients using a prototype system demonstrated reasonably good correlation with left ventricular ejection fractions determined by a scintillation camera-computer system (r = 0.928). The application of this system to continuous monitoring of left ventricular function during exercise or drug stimulations has been found to be clinically useful.