Left ventricular function evaluation using radionuclide methods in the intensive coronary care unit.

Abstract

We describe an adapted first-transit (FT) technique to perform left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) measurements on patients with Swan-Ganz catheters in the intensive cardiac care unit (ICCU). The radionuclide is introduced directly into the right pulmonary artery through the catheter. High-quality images of the left ventricle are obtained owing to minimal activity in the right ventricle and left lung. LVEF measurements obtained by FT compared well with measurements obtained from gated blood pool studies (r = 0.91) but gave consistently lower values. The adapted FT method improves LVEF determination and left-ventricular wall motion evaluation in the ICCU patient.