Ventricular peak emptying and filling rates measured by gated tomographic radionuclide angiography using a cadmium–zinc–telluride SPECT camera in chemotherapy-naïve cancer patients

Introduction

: Radionuclide angiography is widely used for left ventricular function assessment. This study establishes normative data and inter-study repeatability on peak ventricular filling and emptying rates obtained by a cadmium–zinc–telluride SPECT camera.

Method

: Cancer patients (N = 764) without diabetes or cardiovascular diseases referred for baseline assessment of cardiac function were included. Repeatability was assessed in 46 patients where two separate acquisitions were performed. Left and right ventricular emptying rates (LPER, RPER) and filling rates (LPFR, RPFR) were obtained and whenever possible also atrial filling rates (PFR_a).

Results

: Filling rates were higher in women than men. Emptying rates tended to increase with age, whereas filling rates and the E/A ratio decreased. One patient was excluded from the repeatability analysis due to an unexplained high intra-observer variation. Intraclass correlation coefficients for LPER, RPER, LPFR, and RPFR were 0.99, 0.94, 0.99, and 0.84, no proportional biases were detected.

Conclusion

: Reference values and relations to age and gender in chemotherapy-naïve cancer patients without cardiopulmonary disease are presented. The CZT camera provides reproducible estimates of peak emptying and filling rates.