Radionuclide ventriculography, a type of cardiac ventriculography

Cardiac ventriculography

Cardiac Ventriculography is a medical imaging test used to determine a patient's cardiac function in the right, or more typically, left ventricle. Cardiac ventriculography involves injecting contrast media into the heart's ventricle to measure the volume of blood pumped...

, is a form of nuclear imaging, where a gamma camera

Gamma camera

A gamma camera, also called a scintillation camera or Anger camera, is a device used to image gamma radiation emitting radioisotopes, a technique known as scintigraphy...

 is used to create an image following injection of radioactive material, usually Technetium-99m

Technetium-99m

Technetium-99m is a metastable nuclear isomer of technetium-99, symbolized as 99mTc. The "m" indicates that this is a metastable nuclear isomer, i.e., that its half-life of 6 hours is considerably longer than most nuclear isomers that undergo gamma decay...

 (^99mTc). In radionuclide ventriculography, the radionuclide has the property of circulating through the cardiac chambers, availing for studies of the pumping function of the heart. In contrast, in myocardial perfusion imaging, the radionuclide is taken up by the myocardial cells, making its presence correlating with myocardial perfusion or viability of the cells.

Radionuclide ventriculography is done to evaluate coronary artery disease (CAD), valvular heart disease

Valvular heart disease

Valvular heart disease is any disease process involving one or more of the valves of the heart . Valve problems may be congenital or acquired...

, congenital heart diseases, cardiomyopathy

Cardiomyopathy

Cardiomyopathy, which literally means "heart muscle disease," is the deterioration of the function of the myocardium for any reason. People with cardiomyopathy are often at risk of arrhythmia or sudden cardiac death or both. Cardiomyopathy can often go undetected, making it especially dangerous to...

, and other cardiac disorders. It exposes patients to less radiation than do comparable chest x-ray

Chest X-ray

In medicine, a chest radiograph, commonly called a chest X-ray , is a projection radiograph of the chest used to diagnose conditions affecting the chest, its contents, and nearby structures...

 studies. However, the radioactive material is retained in the patient for several days after the test, during which sophisticated radiation alarms may be triggered, such as in airports. Radionuclide ventriculography has largely been replaced by echocardiography

Echocardiography

An echocardiogram, often referred to in the medical community as a cardiac ECHO or simply an ECHO, is a sonogram of the heart . Also known as a cardiac ultrasound, it uses standard ultrasound techniques to image two-dimensional slices of the heart...

, which is less expensive, does not require radiation exposure, and may measure ejection fractions as accurately.