SKELETAL-MUSCLE BLOOD-FLOW IN HEART-FAILURE MEASURED BY ULTRAFAST COMPUTED-TOMOGRAPHY - VALIDATION BY COMPARISON WITH PLETHYSMOGRAPHY

Objectives: Abnormalities of skeletal muscle perfusion and metabolism may be important in the symptomatic limitation of patients with chroni c heart failure. A method for assessing both skeletal muscle blood flo w and mass would be useful in clinical practice and research. Ultrafas t computed tomography has the potential to make these measurements. Th e aim was to determine the accuracy with which skeletal muscle blood f low could be measured by ultrafast computed tomography in patients wit h chronic heart failure. Methods: Leg blood flow measured by venous oc clusion plethysmography was compared with skeletal muscle blood flow b y ultrafast computed tomography. Fourteen patients with chronic heart failure (aged 51 to 76 years) were investigated. Plethysmography and u ltrafast computed tomography measurements were performed at rest and d uring hyperaemic flow induced by symptom limited bicycle exercise foll owed by five minutes of leg ischaemia. The ultrafast computed tomograp hy measurements were made by analysing the opacification of the blood pool and of the muscle after an intravenous bolus of non-ionic radio-o paque contrast. Results: Flows assessed by plethysmography ranged from 1.5 to 38.1 ml. 1 00 ml-1.min-1. The slope of the line relating the t wo methods was 1.1 (95% confidence interval 0.91 to 1.31), and the mea n (95% limits of agreement) of the differences between the two methods was 2.5(10.6) ml. 1 00 ml-1.min-1. Conclusions: Ultrafast computed to mography is a useful tool in the measurement of both skeletal muscle m ass and perfusion in humans.