Fourier analysis of a gated blood-pool study during atrial flutter.

First-harmonic Fourier analysis of a gated blood-pool study is based on the assumption that the cardiac chambers contract once per cardiac cycle. In atrial arrhythmias this condition may not exist for the atria. We recently studied a patient with atrial flutter and 2:1 atrioventricular conduction. There were predictable alterations in the first-harmonic Fourier phase and amplitude images. The observed changes from first-harmonic Fourier analysis were: (a) very low atrial amplitude values, and (b) absence of identifiable atrial regions on the phase image.