Absolute Left Ventricular Volume Using the Build Up Factor

Abstract

A new method for determining absolute left ventricular (LV) volumes from radionuclide gated blood pool images has been validated at our institution (1). Only four parameters are needed to determine LV volumes: the LV count rates from an LAO and an RPO image (180° opposed to the LAO), a venous blood sample, and a patient thickness measurement. The procedure can easily be performed as a part of routine gated blood pool imaging. The technique is non-geometric, corrects for tissue attenuation, and uses an experimentally determined build up factor to account for the effects of scatter.