Quantitative analysis of left ventricular function from equilibrium gated blood pool scintigrams: an overview of computer methods.

An overview is presented on different techniques for data acquisition and analysis of technetium-99m gated blood pool scintigrams. The basic principles for semi- and fully automated boundary detection of the left ventricular activity structure in one or more frames and for the selection of the background region of interest are described. Methods for the computation of global and regional ejection fraction are discussed and comparative data from scintigraphic and contrast left ventricular angiography presented. Finally, an overview of commercially available state of the art computer programs for the computation of global and regional ejection fraction is presented.