Abstract
ECG gated blood pool tomography has been performed in sixteen patients with right ventricular arrhythmias in whom the diagnosis of arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy was made based on the finding of abnormalities on contrast angiography. They were compared both to control subjects and to patients with primary dilated cardiomyopathy. Thick slices of ventricles were obtained throughout the cardiac cycle in three orthogonal planes: horizontal long axis and short axis thick slices for analysis of right and left ventricular regional wall motion abnormalities and analysis of the spread of the contraction by means of Fourier phase imaging, vertical long axis slices (one for each ventricle) for ejection fractions, because of easy and reproducible determination of valvular planes and analysis of all right ventricular segments, especially the pulmonary infundibulum. Five typical right ventricular abnormalities were seen: decreased ejection fraction (32 +/- 15% vs 55 +/- 3% in control; p < 0.001), increased diameter (ratio of right to left diameters = 1.2 +/- 0.3 vs 0.9 +/- 0.1; p < 0.01), global delayed contraction versus that of the left ventricle (22 +/- 20 degrees vs -2 +/- 6%; p < 0.01), increased dispersion of contraction (32 +/- 16 degrees vs 13 +/- 4 degrees; p < 0.01) and presence of segments with decreased and/or delayed contraction. Right ventricular disease was observed in all the patients: localized form (56%), diffused form (44%). This method provides accurate functional data for diagnosis and follow-up of patients. In future, this wall motion evaluation method may replace planar nuclear angiography as myocardial SPECT have replaced myocardial planar scintigraphy.