Quantification of segmental wall motion by length-based Fourier analysis.

A new method for evaluating segmental wall motion by length-based Fourier analysis is described. Fourier analysis is performed on a series of lengths from a center to edges of the ventricle, generating parameters of percent length shortening (%LS) and phase of the segment (length-based phase). The reproducibility of the result was good, since the algorithm was automatic except for the setting of the ventricular region as a mask image to exclude surrounding blood pools. This program can be applied for quantification of ventricular wall-motion abnormalities in gated blood-pool studies, and for analysis of the timing of ventricular contraction in gated blood-pool emission computed tomography to detect the site of an accessory conduction pathway in patients with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome.