Background: Left ventricular ejection fraction (EF) and end systolic volume (ESV) are strong predictors of prognosis. Gated myocardial perfusion SPECT (gSPECT) may be used to measure ESV and EF, however systematic differences may exist between referred populations. Our aim was to derive male and female reference limits for left ventricular functional parameters and determine the effect of age, weight and body surface area (BSA).
Methods and Results: EF and ESV were derived using QGS software for 127 patients with normal gSPECT studies. The lower reference limits of EF were 46.2% and 55.6% for men and women respectively, the upper reference limits of ESV were 30.4ml and 21.4ml and 15.7ml/m2 and 11.1ml/m2 when indexed to BSA. There was no correlation between EF and age, weight or BSA (P>0.05). There was a small decrease in ESV with age and increase with weight and BSA (P<0.05). The gender specific differences remained after adjusting for confounding variables.
Conclusions: We have demonstrated that there is a significant gender difference for all the functional parameters measured and established the influence of patient age and weight. Local reference limits for ESV and EF have been established, the latter are transferable to other departments operating similar protocols.
Peace RA, Adams PC and Lloyd JJ. The effect of sex, age, and weight on ejection fraction and end-systolic volume reference limits in gated myocardial perfusion SPECT. J Nucl Cardiol 2008;15:86-93.
Dr. Richard Peace RVI Unit, Newcastle upon Tyne. Tel: +44 (0)191-233-6161.
Regional Medical Physics Department, Newcastle General Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE4 6BE, UK.
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