Cinematic display of regional function in nuclear imaging

A significant improvement in cardiovascular nuclear medicine has resulted from imaging the beating ventricles by motion-picture display of the intraventricular distribution of 99mTc albumin during 16 phases of the cardiac cycle. We have now begun to make "fast-motion" pictures of other body functions, including the cerebral circulation, pulmonary ventilation, biliary excretion, and renal blood flow. Data obtained over minutes, hours or days are compressed into 16 frames per second. These "compressed-time" images improve our perception of regional dysfunction, and the degree of certainly of our diagnoses. They do so by eliminating the blurring inevitably produced in the usual static images of moving structures, such as the heart, and by revealing small changes in regional function.