[Study of systolic ventricular volume changes by means of current measurement of contrast media]

Systolic changes of left ventricular volume were estimated after left ventricular contrast injections in dogs by roentgen-videodensitometry with adjustable windows. Good correlations were found between densitometric volume changes and the integral of electromagnetic aortic flow, as measured every 20 msec (r greater than or equal to 0.95 in 118 of 124 systoles analyzed). Videodensitometry avoids the time consuming frame-to-frame analysis with the errors inherent in geometric assumptions in ventricular volume measurements.