[Analysis of ventricular wall motion using multislice ECG-gated cardiac X-ray CT: application of the...

A new computer system was proposed to evaluate abnormal motion of the ventricular wall in patients with myocardial infarction. Multi-slice ECG-gated cardiac X-ray CT (MSECT), a new technique developed in our laboratory, was the source of the original image. Using this system, we reconstructed three-dimensional images, calculated % shortening values of the entire heart, and visualized abnormal wall motion on the ventricular surface, displaying three-dimensionally. Our initial study of five patients with myocardial infarction showed good correlation between the findings using this system and conventional echocardiography and cine-ventriculography. Since the development of the ECG-gated method, the application of CT to the study of heart diseases has progressed rapidly. In patients with myocardial infarction, ECG-gated cardiac CT is used to visualize infarcted myocardium and to evaluate impaired cardiac function. However, such analyses were limited to single slices, because a large dose of contrast medium was required to distinguish the ventricular chamber from the myocardium. By adopting multi-slice ECG-gated cardiac X-ray CT images as the data source and using three-dimensional reconstruction technique, this system is useful for evaluating abnormal wall motion.