Comparison between a radiological method of examination (levocardiogram) and a method using radionuclides (ECG-triggered endomyocardial scintigraphy) on the basis of the left-ventricular ejection fraction and kinetic behaviour of the left-ventricular wall as evaluation parameters

Comparisons between levocardiography and radionuclide ventriculography provided evidence to conform the outstanding accurateness of images of the left ventricle obtained by the conventional technique of levocardiography, which proved clearly superior to that achieved with any other method of visualisation. The study further pointed to the fact that radionuclide examinations only are of limited usefulness for the diagnosis of kinetic disorders in the left ventricle's posterior wall. In the determination of overall function parameters like the left-ventricular ejection fraction the results obtained by the two methods were found to deviate to such an extent as to preclude their clinical uses on an alternative basis. The radionuclide method has an additional drawback in that it involves a number of steps requiring adjustments to individual needs, due to which fact interpretation difficulties and sources of error tend to increase. Comparative values obtained on a quantitative basis for the evaluation of movements of the left-ventricular wall show considerable scatter, from which it may be concluded that computer-assisted levocardiography somewhat lacks in reliability, even though it must be regarded as a basically satisfactory procedure. (TRV)