Angiographic Determination of the Left Vetricular Ejection Rate in Man with Heart Disease

¹ Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, University of Alabama Medical Center, Birmingham

Eighty-two adults with various chronic heart diseases were studied by cardiac catheterization and quantitative biplane left ventriculography with filming at 12 per second. Mean left ventricular ejection rate (dVe/dt), which is the change in chamber volume with respect to time, was calculated from the films. The patient series included those with left ventricular volume overload, pressure overload, myocardial disease, idiopathic hypertrophic subaortic stenosis, and one patient with a ventricular septal defect. dVe/dt correlated significantly with stroke volume and both parameters varied over nearly a ten-fold range of values. dVe/dt correlated poorly with the ejection fraction, whereas dVe/dt divided by end-diastolic volume correlated significantly with the ejection fraction. dVe/dt alone bas minimal value in assessing left ventricular function but when dVe/dt is normalized for end-diastolic volume, it may reflect the contractile function of the left ventricle. Therefore, ventricular ejection rate is similar to other assessments of ventricular pump function (ie, stroke volume, strokework, and power) and only has significance in evaluating left ventricular myocardial function when preload is considered.