Published online Sep 28, 2014. doi: 10.4329/wjr.v6.i9.669
Revised: July 7, 2014
Accepted: July 17, 2014
Published online: September 28, 2014
Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) is an important predictor of cardiac outcome and helps in making important diagnostic and therapeutic decisions such as the treatment of different types of congestive heart failure or implantation of devices like cardiac resynchronization therapy-defibrillator. LVEF can be measured by various techniques such as transthoracic echocardiography, contrast ventriculography, radionuclide techniques, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging and cardiac computed tomographic angiography (CTA). The development of cardiac CTA using multi-detector row CT (MDCT) has seen a very rapid improvement in the technology for identifying coronary artery stenosis and coronary artery disease in the last decade. During the acquisition, processing and analysis of data to study coronary anatomy, MDCT provides a unique opportunity to measure left ventricular volumes and LVEF simultaneously with the same data set without the need for additional contrast or radiation exposure. The development 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.
Core tip: Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) is an important predictor of cardiac morbidity and mortality. Different noninvasive and invasive techniques are now available to measure LVEF. Multi-detector row CT (MDCT) has seen a very rapid improvement in the technology for identifying coronary artery stenosis. Using the same data set without additional contrast or radiation exposure, MDCT provides a unique opportunity to measure LV volumes and LVEF with great reliability and adds incremental value. This article will address the feasibility, the accuracy and the limitations of MDCT in measuring LVEF.