Related Experiment Videos
A comparison of angiographic and electrocardiographically gated computed tomographic measurements of left-ventricular
C J Foster1, W C Brownlee, J F Griffin
1Department of Cardiology, Manchester Royal Infirmary.
Insights
Electrocardiographically gated computed tomography (CT) shows good correlation for measuring left-ventricular volumes in patients with ischemic heart disease. While CT accurately measures end-diastolic volume, it overestimates end-systolic volume and underestimates ejection fraction.
Area of Science:
- Cardiology
- Medical Imaging
- Diagnostic Techniques
Background:
- Assessing left-ventricular function is crucial for managing ischemic heart disease.
- Left-ventricular angiography is an invasive standard for evaluating cardiac function.
- Noninvasive imaging techniques are sought to complement or replace invasive methods.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the accuracy of electrocardiographically gated computed tomography (CT) in measuring left-ventricular (LV) volumes and ejection fraction.
- To compare CT measurements with those obtained from left-ventricular angiography.
Main Methods:
- Fifty patients with ischemic heart disease were studied.
- Measurements of end-diastolic volume, end-systolic volume, and ejection fraction were obtained using both electrocardiographically gated CT and left-ventricular angiography.
Main Results:
- No significant difference was found in end-diastolic volume measurements (p = 0.9, r = 0.81).
- Computed tomography significantly overestimated end-systolic volume (p < 0.001, r = 0.89).
- Computed tomography significantly underestimated ejection fraction (p < 0.001, r = 0.74).
Conclusions:
- Electrocardiographically gated CT demonstrates good correlation with left-ventricular angiography for assessing LV function.
- Despite variations, CT is a potentially useful noninvasive technique for evaluating left-ventricular volumes and ejection fraction in ischemic heart disease.
- Further validation may establish CT as a reliable tool for noninvasive cardiac assessment.
Abstract:
Fifty patients with ischaemic heart disease have been studied by electrocardiographically gated computed tomography (CT) and left-ventricular angiography to assess the accuracy of the former in the measurement of left-ventricular volumes and ejection fraction. There was no significant difference in the measurements of end-diastolic volume (p = 0.9, r = 0.81). Computed tomography significantly overestimated end-systolic volume (p less than 0.001, r = 0.89) and significantly underestimated ejection fraction (p less than 0.001, r = 0.74). Although there is some variation between the two sets of measurements, the correlation between the two techniques is good, indicating that electrocardiographically gated CT could be a useful noninvasive technique for assessing left-ventricular function.