Measurement of left and right ventricular volumes with tomographic equilibrium radionuclide angiocardiography and cardiac MRI

OBJECTIVE: We previously developed an operator-interactive method for the measurement of left ventricular (LV) and right ventricular (RV) ejection fraction (EF) and end-systolic volume (ESV) and end-diastolic volume (EDV) using single-photon emission tomographic equilibrium radionuclide angiocardiography (SPECT ERNA). We aimed to compare our SPECT ERNA method with cardiac MRI (CMRI) for the determination of ventricular measures. METHODS: Paired measurements of LV and RV EFs and ESV and EDV were carried out by SPECT ERNA and CMRI in a group of patients who had myocardial infarction due to left anterior descending coronary artery thrombosis. RESULTS: SPECT ERNA and CMRI provided similar estimations of the mean (SD) LV ESV [61 (23) vs. 61 (32) ml; P=0.99] and LV EDV [134 (29) vs. 141 (44) ml; P=0.28]. The mean (SD) LV EF by SPECT ERNA was slightly but significantly smaller than that by CMRI [0.55 (0.10) vs. 0.58 (0.11) ml; P=0.03]. SPECT ERNA, compared with CMRI, produced similar mean (SD) values of RV ESV [62 (17) vs. 67 (17) ml; P=0.10] and RV EDV [153 (28) vs. 149 (29) ml; P=0.51] and somewhat larger mean (SD) RV EF [0.60 (0.06) vs. 0.55 (0.06) ml; P<0.001]. Excellent correlations were found between SPECT ERNA and CMRI for combined LV ESV and EDV (R=0.85, P<0.001) and combined RV ESV and EDV (R=0.85, P<0.001). CONCLUSION: This study further validates SPECT ERNA as a method to measure LV and RV EF, ESV, and EDV.