AUTOMATED COMPUTER-PROGRAM FOR RADIONUCLIDE CARDIAC-OUTPUT DETERMINATION

  • 1 January 1979
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 20  (12) , 1301-1307
Abstract
Radionuclides have provided a safe, reliable and minimally invasive method for repeated determinations of cardiac output. A completely automated computer program for data analysis is described. Cardiac output values obtained by this technique correlated closely with values obtained by manual determination of the region of interest (r [correlation coefficient] = 0.90 for right-ventricular and 0.98 for left-ventricular outputs, P < 0.001 for both). Cardiac output determined by computer selection of left-ventricular area of interest or of the whole heart region correlated significantly with that simultaneously determined by dye-dilution technique (indocyanine green; r = 0.86, P < 0.001 for both). The automated approach [for human use] allows greater objectivity in the selection of the regions of interest, faster turnaround of calculated results and use of a smaller dose of radionuclide.