A study of three-dimensional image expression of the left ventricle

In this report, the left ventricular blood pool of the heart is presented as an image of three dimensions by collecting the data simultaneously with two scintillation cameras from two directions at right angles to one another and processing by a computer system. Our three dimensional procedures, quite different from the conventional two dimensional images, reproduce the cubic structure of the left ventricle. It was confirmed by basic experiments using several phantoms that this three dimensional image reproduced the shape of the object very accurately. The three dimensional images of the left ventricle clearly showed morphological changes and abnormalities in myocardial movement. It is highly valuable in diagnosis because foci of myocardial infarction, akinesis and dyskinesis are clearly detected by this technique. In particular, the fact that the three dimensional images conform well with X-ray cineangiography and 201Tl scanning justifies the value of the clinical application of this technique. (orig.)