ABSTRACT
Ischemic heart disease is the leading cause of morbidity and
mortality in industrialized countries.1 For clinical diagnosis
and risk stratification in patients with suspected or docu-
mented heart disease, the accurate and reproducible deter-
mination of left ventricular (LV) myocardial function is of
utmost importance, as LV volumes and myocardial mass are
independent predictors of morbidity and mortality in
patients with coronary heart disease.2,3 Global LV function
is considered the strongest determinant of heart failure and
death due to myocardial infarction.4 Furthermore, the eval-
uation of LV function provides valuable information for
treatment planning, monitoring of the efficacy of treatment
as well as prognostic parameters in patients with ischemic
and nonischemic cardiomyopathy.3-5
Currently, global and regional LV function can be
assessed using different invasive modalities, i.e. mono-and
biplane cineventriculography, and noninvasive imaging
modalities, i.e. echocardiography,6-8 cine magnetic reso-
nance imaging (CMR),9-18 electron-beam computed tomo-
graphy (EBCT)19-23 as well as ECG-gated single photon
emission computed tomography (SPECT) and positron
emission tomography (PET).22-25 In clinical practice, the
assessment of LV volumes and function is most commonly
accomplished with echocardiography as a quick and widely
available bedside test as well as with CMR that is currently
considered the modality of reference for assessment of car-
diac function.8-10,14
In 1998, ECG-gated multi-detector row computed
tomography (MDCT) was introduced as a noninvasive car-
diac imaging technique primarily aiming at the detection of
coronary artery stenoses and cardiac morphology.
