Angiocardiographic left ventricular volume determination. Accuracy, as determined from human casts, and clinical application.

On the basis of 21 life-like human casts (the method is described in the first paper of this series) the influence of (a) spatial orientation, (b) cardiac phase, and (c) biplane and single-plane methods of volume calculation on the accuracy of left ventricular (LV) angiocardiographic volume determination was quantitated. The best results are obtained, when a biplane approach is utilized and when position and cardiac phase appropriate correction factors (CF) are applied to the model volumes (area--length (AL) and multiple-slices (MS) methods). Thus the statistical error is decreased and a more important larger systematic error avoided. The AL and the MS methods perform equally well; on the average, however, the AL method is slightly favored. The application of this concept of differentiated CFs to 83 normal left ventricles of infants and children resulted in nonlinear relationships between LV volumes and their respective body surface areas (BSA) (EDV = 65.1 . BSA1.219, r = 0.961, SV = 46.7 . BSA1.219, r = 0.949). The ejection fraction (71.8%) does not correlate with the BSA (r = -0.036).