Left ventricular ejection and filling rate measurement based on the automatic edge detection method of ECG-gated blood pool single-photon emission tomography

The objective of the present investigation was to determine the feasibility of assessing left ventricular systolic ejection and diastolic filling via the automatic edge detection method employing ECG-gated blood pool single-photon emission tomography (SPET GBP) data. Methods: Thirty-five patients, who had undergone both SPET GBP and ECG-gated equilibrium blood pool scintigraphy by the planar method (planar GBP), were enrolled in this study. Planar GBP was performed with a single-headed gamma camera. From the left anterior oblique projection, data were acquired at 24 frames/cardiac cycle with ECG-gating during the equilibrium state. SPET GBP was conducted utilizing a triple-headed gamma camera, with 60 projection views over 360 degrees by 60 sec per view, in 16 frames/cardiac cycle. In each frame, left ventricular volume was determined by automatic edge detection employing a quantitative gated SPET program. Additionally, the time-volume curve was fitted by the 4th harmonics of Fourier transform. Ejection fraction (EF, %), peak ejection rate (PER,/sec), peak filling rate (PFR,/sec) and mean filling rate during the initial one-third of diastolic time (1/3 FRm) were calculated from the fitted curve. These parameters were also calculated with planar GBP data. Result: Left ventricular ejection and filling parameters were calculated by SPET GBP with the automatic edge detection program for all patient data. Correlation coefficients of EF, PER, PFR and 1/3 FRm between SPET and planar GBP were 0.91 (p < 0.001), 0.82 (p < 0.001), 0.78 (p < 0.001) and 0.74 (p < 0.001), respectively. Conclusion: Ejection and filling rates can be calculated using SPET GBP with the edge-detection software. These parameters displayed significant correlations with those values obtained via planar GBP. Additional studies are warranted to determine the reliability of parameters with SPET GBP.