Evaluation of right ventricular volume and mass using retrospective ECG-gated cardiac multidetector computed tomography: comparison with first-pass radionuclide angiography

Abstract

The purposes of this study were to evaluate the right ventricular (RV) volume and mass using cardiac multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) and to compare the cardiac MDCT results with those from first-pass radionuclide angiography (FPRA). Twenty patients were evaluated for the RV end-diastolic volume (RVEDV), the RV end-systolic volume (RVESV), the RV ejection fraction (RVEF), and RV mass using cardiac MDCT with a two-phase reconstruction method based on ECG. The end-diastolic phase was reconstructed at the starting point of the QRS complex on ECG, and the end-systolic phase was reconstructed at the halfway point of the ascending T-wave on ECG. The RV mass was measured for the end-systole. The RVEF was also obtained by FPRA. The mean RVEF (47+/-7%) measured by cardiac MDCT was well correlated with that (44+/-6%) measured by FPRA (r=0.854). A significant difference in the mean RVEF was found between cardiac MDCT and FPRA (p=0.001), with an overestimation of 2.9+/-5.3% by cardiac MDCT versus FPRA. The interobserver variability was 4.4% for the RVEDV, 6.8% for the RVESV, and 7.9% for the RV mass, respectively. Cardiac MDCT is relatively simple and allows the RV volume and mass to be assessed, and the RVEF obtained by cardiac MDCT correlates well with that measured by FPRA.

Coronary artery imaging during preoperative CT staging: preliminary experience with 64-slice multidetector CT in 99 consecutive patients

“…In addition to preoperative staging of the underlying respiratory disease, a given data set not only can participate in the screening for coronary artery disease, as recently reported for respiratory patients [19] as well as for the rapid triage of patients presenting to emergency centers with chest pain [16,33], but is also able to provide cardiac functional information in candidates for chest surgery. Although this latter aspect was not investigated in our protocol, several recent studies have demonstrated that 16-and 64-slice MSCTs were accurate and reliable non-invasive techniques for evaluating right and left cardiac function [18,20,[34][35][36], providing vital information for the management of patients with a wide variety of acute or chronic respiratory disorders.…”

Integrated cardio-thoracic imaging with ECG-Gated 64-slice multidetector-row CT: initial findings in 133 patients

“…Three approaches were proposed, one investigating cardiac global function during a whole-chest multislice CT acquisition with a 16×1.5-mm collimation to ensure an acceptable breath-hold duration [6], one investigating a two-phase protocol to scan both the entire thorax and cardiac cavities with the highest spatial resolution [7], while the third one evaluated a dedicated cardiac MDCT protocol to assess right ventricular function and mass [8]. Comparing ECG-gated 16-slice multidetector row CT (MDCT) with equilibrium radionuclide ventriculography, these preliminary studies demonstrated the feasibility of such an approach in limited populations of hemodynamically stable patients [6][7][8].…”

A simple method to estimate cardiac function during routine multi-row detector CT exams

“…In the past, several authors have described techniques to measure cardiac output using cine computed tomography [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. Unlike our method, these techniques are complex and based on mathematical modeling.…”

“…Theoretically, different techniques can be used to estimate cardiac function with CT. First, myocardial contours can be determined at end-diastole and endsystole, and functional parameters such as ejection fraction, end diastolic volume and cardiac output can be calculated [1][2][3][4]. However, this approach is not commonly used because of the need for ECG triggering and postprocessing.…”