Quantitative assessment of global and regional left ventricular function with low-contrast dose digital subtraction ventriculography.

Few studies have compared the use of low-contrast dose digital subtraction ventriculography with conventional ventriculography for quantitative assessment of both global and regional left ventricular function. Accordingly, 34 patients underwent conventional ventriculography using 36 ml of ionic contrast material and digital ventriculography (mask-mode) using 10 ml of contrast diluted in 10 ml of saline and injected over two seconds. Data from two patients were excluded because of ectopy during cineventriculography and from one because of ectopy during both studies. End-diastolic and end-systolic volumes were calculated from both studies by an area-length method and used to calculate ejection fractions. Regional wall motion was quantitated by the centerline method. Results of linear regression analysis demonstrated high correlations for all parameters (end-diastolic volume, r = 0.85; end-systolic volume, r = 0.93; ejection fraction, r = 0.92; quantitative regional wall motion, r = 0.90). Thus, low-contrast dose digital subtraction ventriculography provides an accurate assessment of both global and regional ventricular function and minimizes the required dose and inherent risks of contrast media.