摘要
Left ventricular ejection fraction(LVEF)is an impor-tant predictor of cardiac outcome and helps in makingimportant diagnostic and therapeutic decisions suchas the treatment of different types of congestive heartfailure or implantation of devices like cardiac resynchro-nization therapy-defibrillator.LVEF can be measuredby various techniques such as transthoracic echo-cardiography,contrast ventriculography,radionuclidetechniques,cardiac magnetic resonance imaging andcardiac computed tomographic angiography(CTA).Thedevelopment of cardiac CTA using multi-detector rowCT(MDCT)has seen a very rapid improvement in thetechnology for identifying coronary artery stenosis andcoronary artery disease in the last decade.During theacquisition,processing and analysis of data to studycoronary anatomy,MDCT provides a unique opportunityto measure left ventricular volumes and LVEF simulta-neously with the same data set without the need foradditional contrast or radiation exposure.The develop-ment of semi-automated and automated software to measure LVEF has now added uniformity,efficiency and reproducibility of practical value in clinical practice rather than just being a research tool.This article will address the feasibility,the accuracy and the limitations of MDCT in measuring LVEF.
Left ventricular ejection fraction(LVEF)is an impor-tant predictor of cardiac outcome and helps in makingimportant diagnostic and therapeutic decisions suchas the treatment of different types of congestive heartfailure or implantation of devices like cardiac resynchro-nization therapy-defibrillator.LVEF can be measuredby various techniques such as transthoracic echo-cardiography,contrast ventriculography,radionuclidetechniques,cardiac magnetic resonance imaging andcardiac computed tomographic angiography(CTA).Thedevelopment of cardiac CTA using multi-detector rowCT(MDCT)has seen a very rapid improvement in thetechnology for identifying coronary artery stenosis andcoronary artery disease in the last decade.During theacquisition,processing and analysis of data to studycoronary anatomy,MDCT provides a unique opportunityto measure left ventricular volumes and LVEF simulta-neously with the same data set without the need foradditional contrast or radiation exposure.The develop-ment of semi-automated and automated software to measure LVEF has now added uniformity,efficiency and reproducibility of practical value in clinical practice rather than just being a research tool.This article will address the feasibility,the accuracy and the limitations of MDCT in measuring LVEF.
