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This is a preprint of a paper intended for publication in a journal or proceedings. Since changes may be made before publication, this preprint is made available with the understanding that it will not be cited or reproduced without the permission of the author.

A simple, safe method for bedside measurement of left ventricular function and pulmonary blood volume has been developed. A single scintillation probe positioned over the mid-left ventricle records the passage of bolus of radionuclide (ll3mIn) injected into the superior vena cava, from which the left ventricular ejection fraction can be determined after proper background correction. ll3mIn, half-life I-7 hours, easily prepared from a commercially available generator, rapidly binds to plasma transferrin and can be used to determine blood volume and cardiac output. With cardiac output and left ventricular ejection fraction determined simultaneously, left ventricular end-diastolic volume can be calculated and pulmonary blood volume can be determined from pulmonary transit time and cardiac output.With this method, we have demonstrated stable and changing left ventricular function and pulmonary blood volume in a variety of clinical situations, e.g. myocardial infarction, pulmonary embolism, and severe pulmonary parenchymal disease. Blood volume and cardiac output so determined correlate well with standard techniques. The left ventricular ejection fraction determined by this method correlates well with this measurement obtained from left ventricular angiography. Loss of the pulmonary valley between the right and left ventricles has been demonstrated in severe pulmonary vascular obstruction (embolism), in severe bronchial obstruction, and as a result of massive right ventricular dilatation in the presence of normal pulmonary blood volume. This method, which can be frequently performed, has proved useful in serial evaluation of cardiac function at the bedside.The ability to quantitate left ventricular function at the bedside would be an important aid for the care of the seriously ill patient, especially if the measurement could be repeated frequently. Not only would such information be of value in the management of the individual patient, but it would provide the basis for evaluation of various forms of therapy. External monitoring of the passage of a bolus of radioactive tracer through the central circulation has been developed over the past 25 years (Prinzmetal et al., 1948) in an attempt to fulfil the need for a safe, easily repeatable method of quantitating cardiac function. Earlier attempts to use simple scintillation probes and low frequency data for evaluation of the left ventricle after a right-sided

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Although reticuloendothelial cells are an invariable component of normal marrow, the distribution of phagocytic acitivity may or may not correspond to the distribution of erythropoietic activity in the presence of disease affecting the marrow. A direct comparison of the distributions of reticuloendothelial marrow (using Tc99m-sulfur colloid) and erythropoietic marrow (using Fe52) in patients receiving treatment for various diseases affecting the bone marrow has been made. In the presence of hematologic disease, the correlation between the distributions of these two marrow functions has varied from identical to totally dissimilar. Unless one is studying normal subjects, knows a priori that marrow composition is normal, or is specifically studying the reticuloendothelial component of the marrow, one must be cautious in equating marrow distributions obtained with colloidal material with erythropoietic marrow distribution.