Right ventricular parameters: prospect for routine assessment by equilibrium radionuclide angiographic SPECT

While left ventricular (LV) function is assessed routinely for heart disease, right ventricular (RV) assessment has attracted relatively little attention due to technical difficulties, even though RV function plays an important role in determining prognosis. This issue of the Communications includes a report that a SPECT ERNA algorithm applied to data for patients with tetralogy of Fallot exhibited RV dysfunction compared to normal subjects, as reported previously using different ERNA SPECT algorithms. That ERNA SPECT methods appear to produce results that are expected of patient group who should exhibit RV abnormalities presents the prospect that such algorithms also could be used to evaluate whether patients undergoing chemotherapy with anthracyclines and other cardiotoxic chemotherapeutic agents become at risk of developing RV, as well as, LV dysfunction. SPECT ERNA may well become the standard test for monitoring RV and LV components of heart disease in managing patients undergoing chemotherapy.