Cinematic three-dimensional surface display of cardiac blood pool tomography

A method of three-dimensional cinematic display (3D cine) of cardiac blood pool tomography is described. ECG-gated transaxial blood pool imaging was obtained from a set of projection images that were collected from 32 images with 10 ECG-gated images per projection during a 180 degrees arc of a rotating gamma camera. A surface contour of the blood pool was determined by a set of isocount lines (40-55% of the maximum pixel counts) of the transaxial images. 3D cine was made by a depth-shading method, in which brightness of a given point on the contour was set proportional to the distance between the viewing plane and the point and to the incident angle formed by the viewing line and the surface of the point. In 15 patients, 3D cine showed hypokinesia, akinesia, dyskinesia, ventricular aneurysm, and opposite motions of the atria and ventricles. Diagnoses of left ventricular motion by 3D cine agreed well with those by echocardiography and contrast left ventriculography.