The beneficial effects of short pulse width acquisition and ECG-gating in digital angiocardiography

Experimental intravenous left ventriculography and coronary angiography after aortic root injection were performed in 13 animals. Various image acquisition and digital image processing techniques were employed. These included single mask mode subtraction, integrated mask mode subtraction, ECG-gated image acquisition, TV camera read-out in interlaced mode, and pulse progressive read-out with 1- to 5-ms pulse width. High quality images were obtained consistently only after ECG-gating and use of 1- to 5-ms pulse width with pulse progressive read-out of the TV camera. Integration of four to eight background as well as contrast images all from the same phase of the cardiac cycle further improved image quality.