Measurement of ventricular function with radionuclide techniques.

The noninvasive assessment of resting left ventricular performance has become an integral part of the evaluation of patients with known or suspected cardiac disease, having important diagnostic, therapeutic, and prognostic significance. This article details the wide range of clinical diagnostic possibilities available by dynamic imaging of myocardial function using scintigraphic techniques, including gated planar and tomographic blood pool imaging, first-pass radionuclide angiography, and gated tomographic perfusion imaging. The clinical and technical aspects described should be useful to the cardiologist intent upon supervising the performance of these tests, as well as providing their interpretation.