Global and regional assessment of cardiac performance by ECG-gated radionuclide blood pool imaging.

A non-invasive method for evaluation of regional and global ventricular function by ECG-gated radionuclide blood pool imaging was developed. Cinematic image display is a sensitive method for evaluating wall motion to detect regional ventricular abnormalities and chamber size. A value of r = 0,86 and 0,85 was found for both fixed and variable area radionuclide methods when these ejection fraction values were correlated with cardio-angiographic ejection fraction values in normal subjects and in patients with myocardial infarction. The fixed area method underestimated the ejection fraction in patients with mitra valve stenosis, but this problem can be overcome with the variable area method. The technique developed cannot be used in patients with severe arrhythmias (r = 0,49 and 0,44).