MEASUREMENT OF CARDIAC-OUTPUT WITH FIRST-PASS DETERMINATION DURING RB-82 PET MYOCARDIAL PERFUSION IMAGING

In addition to providing useful clinical information, cardiac output d etermined during rubidium-82 positron emission tomographic (PET) myoca rdial perfusion studies can be used in the measurement of absolute reg ional myocardial blood flow using Sapirstein's method, This investigat ion was conducted to compare cardiac output values obtained by post-pr ocessing data acquired in a list mode PET myocardial perfusion study w ith those obtained using a technetium-99m-labeled red blood cell metho d on the same patients. Results from 14 patients showed that cardiac o utput can be accurately measured simultaneously in a Rb-82 PET myocard ial study, allowing determination of multiple perfusion and functional parameters of the heart, thus improving the cost-effectiveness of the Rb-82 PET study.