Measurement of left ventricular ejection fraction (EF) by densitometry from digital subtraction angiography

The densitometric and geometric method for estimating the left ventricular ejection fraction (EF) are compared and the accuracy and reproducibility of densitometry in patients and casts are assessed. EF calculations for the densitometric method are in a better agreement with the simulated EF in the heart casts than the area-length method. The intra- and inter-observer variability is remarkably lower for the densitometry than for the area-length method. The data indicate that the densitometric calculation of EF is a more reliable method than the area-length method, because densitometry is independent of geometric assumptions