Multiple-hospital survey of ejection-fraction variability using a cardiac phantom

Area of Science:

• Nuclear Medicine
• Cardiovascular Imaging

Background:

• Ejection fraction (EF) is a key metric in assessing cardiac function.
• Standardization of EF calculation methods across nuclear medicine laboratories is crucial for reliable patient assessment.
• Variability in EF calculations can impact clinical decision-making.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the variability in ejection fraction (EF) calculations among different nuclear medicine laboratories.
• To compare the impact of different operators and computer systems on EF calculation accuracy.
• To identify potential sources of variability in nuclear medicine cardiac studies.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a dynamic cardiac phantom to generate identical input data.
• Distributed data to 11 nuclear medicine laboratories in the Philadelphia area.
• Collected and analyzed ejection fraction (EF) calculations from each laboratory.

Main Results:

• Variability between different operators using the same computer system averaged 3 EF units.
• Variability between observers using different computer systems was comparable to same-system variability.
• A trend suggested lower EF calculations with MDS computers compared to DEC computers, particularly at low ejection fraction ranges.

Conclusions:

• Operator and computer system differences contribute to variability in nuclear medicine EF calculations.
• Standardization efforts are needed to minimize discrepancies in EF measurements.
• Further investigation into system-specific biases, like the MDS vs. DEC computer observation, is warranted for accurate cardiac assessment.