Relationship of radionuclide indexes of cardiac function during interventions: volume loading, afterload stress, exercise, and pacing.

We compared three radionuclide indexes of cardiac function: (1) the ejection fraction (EF), (2) the mean ejection rate (ER), and (3) the mean velocity of circumferential fiber shortening (MVCF) during volume loading, phenylephrine hydrochloride stress, exercise, and atrial pacing. All behaved in a similar (linear) fashion, allowing appropriate hemodynamic conclusions to be drawn using either index. During atrial pacing, the ejection fraction declined, when velocity indexes increased--suggesting that the ejection fraction may not be a suitable index to characterize alterations in inotropic state during rapid alterations in heart rate, particular in the absence of angina pectoris. This may result from the reductions in cardiac volume for the duration of pacing, where the velocity index is preserved. In most circumstances excluding atrial pacing, ejection fraction during interventions is an adequate index of the change of myocardial contractile state. Overall, radionuclide angiography is an excellent technique to characterize acute hemodynamic interventions, with ejection fraction, in general, the simplest and most reliable of cardiac indexes during stress interventions.