Correlation between left ventricular ejection fraction assessed by gated SPECT and radionuclide ventriculography in patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy

Recently, the use of Gated SPECT to assess ejection fraction, volumes and ventricular wall motion has been suggested. The aim of this study is to compare the ejection fraction (EF) obtained by Gated SPECT (QGS, Cedars Sinai) with the values obtained through equilibrium ventriculography in patients with ischemic heart disease. We studied 50 consecutive patients that were diagnosed by equilibrium radioisotopic ventriculography and Gated SPECT with a dual protocol (TI-201 rest/Tc-99m SestaMIBI stress) using the QGS, Cedars Sinai software. We found a 92% correlation between both tests. In the subgroup analysis, the higher correlation (r = 0.89) was found in group 2, which included patients with moderate ventricular dysfunction (EF 30-50%), whereas, in patients with severe ventricular dysfunction (group 3, EF < 30%), the correlation was lower (r = 0.76) than in group 2, but higher than in patients with EF > 50% (group 1). There is a good correlation between EF obtained with Gated SPECT and equilibrium ventriculography, regardless of the EF value.