Assessment of Cardiac Performance With Quantitative Radionuclide Angiocardiography

MARSHALL, ROBERT C. M.D.
BERGER, HARVEY J. M.D.
REDUTO, LAWRENCE A. M.D.
COHEN, LAWRENCE S. M.D.
GOTTSCHALK, ALEXANDER M.D.
ZARET, BARRY L. M.D.

From the Cardiology Section, Department of Internal Medicine and Nuclear Medicine Section, Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut.

Address for reprints: Barry L. Zaret, M.D., Yale University School of Medicine, Section of Cardiology, 333 Cedar Street, 87 LMP, New Haven, Connecticut 06510.

Received February 6, 1978; revision accepted July 3, 1978.

Supported in part by Contract NOI HV52977 and Grant ROIHL21690-01 from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

Dr. Zaret is an Established Investigator of the American Heart Association.

Dr. Marshall was a Research Fellow of the Connecticut Affiliate of the American Heart Association. His present address is the Cardiology Division, UCLA Center for the Health Sciences, Los Angeles, California.

Circulation 58(5):p 808-814, November 1978.

SUMMARY The effect of incremental dosages of oral propranolol (mean peak dose of 165 ± 13 mg/day) on left ventricular ejection fraction, ejection rate and regional wall motion was studied sequentially in 22 stable, resting patients with coronary artery disease using a geometry-independent first-pass radionuclide angiocardiographic technique. All patients improved clinically, in association with a fall in heart rate and therapeutic serum propranolol levels. No significant changes were noted in ejection fraction, ejection rate or regional wall motion. No patient developed a new regional wall motion disturbance. Thus, oral propranolol administered at clinically effective antianginal dosages in patients with stable coronary artery disease does not appear to have significant deleterious effects on resting left ventricular performance.