Ejection fraction with planar gated 99m-Tc SestaMIBI images

Left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction (EF) can be determined from planar first pass blood pool images following injection of 99m-Tc SestaMIBI. However, it is technically simpler to obtain LVEF from gated SestaMIBI images of the perfused myocardium. Because the geometry-based EF calculation involves potential errors, we assessed the accuracy of this method by both validating the approach using phantom images, and comparing LVEFs from perfusion studies with the LVEFs from contrast angiography in the same patients. We also demonstrated that this bidimensional EF calculation method reflects changes in LV volumes from end diastole (ED) to end systole (ES), as in an ellipsoid model of the left ventricle, by supporting the assumption that changes along the ellipsoid long axis from ED to ES are significantly smaller than changes along the anteroposterior or septum-lateral axes of the ventricle, thus making LVEF from planar gated perfusion images a useful diagnostic and prognostic tool.