[Quantitative gated nuclear cardiography for noninvasive evaluation of left ventricular function].

In 43 patients with angiographically proven coronary heart disease and in 24 patients without heart disease, gated blood pool scintigraphy was done under resting conditions with 15 mCi 99mTcHSA in LAO projection. Scintigraphic data were collected in list mode by means of a gamma camera connected to a computer system (Siemens 330). A cumulative scintigram sequence with a time resolution of 100 frames/s was constructed using several hundred heart cycles of equal duration. After background correction volume curves of the left ventricle were obtained and the following parameters were calculated: EF, dV/dt max,dV/dt min. In all patients with coronary heart disease, these parameters were reduced depending on the severity of the stenotic lesion. The changes of dV/dt min and to a greater extend of dV/dt max were more pronounced than those of the EF. These results are in keeping with invasively obtained data which show that a decrease of myocardial compliance is one of the earliest manifestations of CHD. Quantitative gated nuclear cardiography allows, therefore, noninvasive evaluation of left ventricular function even under resting conditions.