Analysis of left ventricular function from gated first-pass and multiple gated equilibrium acquisitions

Abstract

^99mTechnetium-sestamibi is a new myocardial perfusion imaging agent that offers significant physical advantages over²⁰¹thallium for myocardial perfusion imaging. One of these advantages is that it can be used in the assessment of ventricular function by means of first-pass radionuclide angiography (FPRNA), acquired during the injection of the tracer. In this study we compared gated list mode first-pass acquisition with^99mTc-sestamibi (FP-MIBI) to multiple gated equilibrium radionuclide ventriculography (MUGA) with^99mTc-labelled red blood cells for the determination of global left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). The study population consisted of 20 patients (mean age 54 years) who were submitted to stress-rest perfusion imaging. Resting FPRNA was performed using^99mTc-sestamibi and the reference data were acquired within a week with the MUGA technique. A linear correlation between FP LVEF and MUG A LVEF gave an r=0.974 (p<0.01). Diastolic and systolic timing and velocity parameters had lower correlations between these two methods. We conclude thatglobal LVEF can be precisely measured with^99mTc-sestamibi when compared to usually employed MUGA technique with^99mTc-labelled red blood cells.