A new method of three dimensional analysis of left ventricular wall motion.

The three dimensional (3D) shape of left ventricles (LV) was reconstructed from gated blood pool emission computed tomography (GECT) to assess regional LV wall motion. The 3D LV shape was created using LV boundaries detected by a threshold method. Based on the length from each LV boundary to the end diastolic LV center of mass, regional percent shortening and phase of the first harmonic by Fourier analysis were calculated to create 3D functional images. These images clearly demonstrated the 3D extent of wall motion abnormality. In addition, the same 3D analysis was applied to biplane X-ray left ventriculography (LVG) by assuming that LV short axis sections were elliptic. Results of planar imaging, 3D analysis of GECT, 3D analysis of LVG and conventional LVG findings correlated well with each other. The 3D analysis of GECT is useful for non invasive quantitative analysis of LV wall motion.