Radionuclide left ventricular volume curves in angiographically proved normal subjects and patients with three-vessel coronary disease

Abstract

To determine the diagnostic value of measurements obtained from radionuclide left ventricular volume curves, we compared 12 patients with normal coronary arteries (NL) to 12 patients with three-vessel coronary artery disease (3V CAD). Maximum and mean rates of ejection and filling, times of maximum ejection and filling, durations of systole and diastole, and percentages of ejection and filling during each third were measured at rest and during exercise. The only group differences at rest were a 39 msec ( p = 0.002) delay in the time of maximal filling and a 6% ( p = 0.04) decrease in first third filling fraction in the 3V CAD patients. The overlap in values for these two parameters, however, did not allow good separation of the patients into NL and 3V CAD groups. During exercise, maximal and mean rates of ejection and filling were significantly lower in the 3V CAD group, but these measurements did not improve on the discriminative value of heart rate and ejection fraction alone. Thus, in both the resting and exercise states, measurements of instantaneous changes in left ventricular volume added little diagnostic information.