Work in progress: a correction for tissue iodine accumulation in videodensitometric measurements of left ventricular ejection fraction

Left ventricular ejection fractions were determined following eight intravenous injections in three dogs using area/length and digital videodensitometric techniques. Ejection fractions were measured by both techniques for all beats during left ventricular opacification. Even after noniodinated background corrections, tissue iodine accumulation produced large errors in measured iodine content late in the contrast material curve. By using a model for tissue iodine accumulation, an algorithm was developed that appears to reduce these errors. The measured ejection fraction for ten beats following the peak of the contrast material curve declined an average of 1.8% following correction, compared with 14% prior to correction. Following correction for tissue iodine accumulation, correlation between area/length and video-densitometric ejection fractions was 0.94. By correcting for tissue iodine accumulation, much more of the contrast material curve provides usable data for estimating ejection fractions.