Measurement of both left ventricular function and regional myocardial perfusion with 133Xe in dogs

A technique to measure left ventricular (LV) function and myocardial perfusion was validated in 12 dogs. 133Xe in saline was injected into the left atrium (LA) or LV and two data sets were obtained using gamma camera imaging: 1) A first pass gated scan for LV function; followed by 2) Sequential images for regional myocardial perfusion. LV ejection fraction and wall motion measurements from the 133Xe blood pool images were compared to ejection fraction (r = 0.88, P less than 0.01) and wall motion (r = 0.83, P less than 0.01) data from 99mTc labeled blood pool scans. The perfusion measurements obtained with the 133Xe method were compared to microsphere data (r = 0.79, P less than 0.01). Measurements after LV 133Xe injection were similar to data following LA injection. Thus, quantitative assessment of global LV function, regional wall motion and myocardial perfusion is possible with LA or LV 133Xe injection and gamma camera imaging.