Is TOMPOOL (gated blood-pool SPECT processing software) accurate to diagnose right and left ventricular dysfunction...

Area of Science:

• Cardiology
• Medical Imaging
• Software Validation

Background:

• Assessing right ventricular function is critical for managing heart disease.
• Tomographic Equilibrium Radionuclide Ventriculography (TERV) data is processed by TOMPOOL software.
• This study evaluates TOMPOOL's accuracy and reproducibility in patients with diverse ventricular dysfunction etiologies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the diagnostic accuracy of TOMPOOL software.
• To evaluate the inter-observer reproducibility of TOMPOOL measurements.
• To compare TOMPOOL-derived parameters with reference standards like cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) and thermodilution.

Main Methods:

• TOMPOOL was used to calculate end-diastolic volume (EDV), ejection fraction (EF), and cardiac output (CO) for both right ventricle (RV) and left ventricle (LV) in 99 patients.
• Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) served as the reference standard for EDV and EF in 35 patients.
• Thermodilution measurements were used as the reference standard for right ventricular cardiac output (CO) in 21 patients.

Main Results:

• TOMPOOL showed strong correlations with CMR for RV/LV EF (r=0.73/0.80) and EDV (r=0.67/0.73).
• Correlation with thermodilution for RV CO was r=0.57.
• Optimal cut-off points for diagnosing ventricular dysfunction/enlargement were identified, with high sensitivity and specificity. Areas under the ROC curve ranged from 0.79 to 0.99.
• Inter-observer reproducibility for EF, EDV, and CO was high (r=0.75-0.94).

Conclusions:

• TOMPOOL demonstrates accurate and reproducible measurements of EDV, EF, and CO.
• The software's results correlate well with established reference standards (CMR and thermodilution).
• While accurate, specific thresholds for diagnosing ventricular dysfunction may require adjustment.