CLINICAL VALIDATION OF FULLY AUTOMATED COMPUTATION OF EJECTION FRACTION FROM GATED EQUILIBRIUM BLOOD-POOL SCINTIGRAMS

Abstract

A fully automated procedure for the computation of left-ventricular ejection fraction (EF) from cardiac-gated 99mTc blood-pool (GBP) scintigrams with fixed, dual and variable ROI [region of interest] methods is described. By comparison with EF data from contrast ventriculography in 68 patients, the dual-ROI method (separate end-diastolic and end-systolic contours) was found to be the method of choice; processing time was 2 min. Success score of dual-ROI procedure was 92% as assessed from 100 GBP studies. Overall reproducibility of data acquisition and analysis was determined in 12 patients. Mean value and SD of differences between repeat studies (average time interval 27 min) were 0.8% and 4.3% EF U, respectively, (r = 0.98). Left-ventricular EF evidently can be computed automatically from GBP scintigrams with minimal operator-interaction and good reproducibility; EF are similar to those from contrast ventriculography.