Question

What will the filling curve look like if the T-wave is interpreted as an R-wave, resulting in gating on both?

A) The filling curve will show a normal pattern.
B) The filling curve will be distorted and difficult to interpret.
C) The filling curve will show decreased blood pool activity.
D) The filling curve will show increased blood pool activity.

Answer 1

Misinterpreting the T-wave as an R-wave leads to incorrect imaging gating, resulting in a distorted and difficult to interpret filling curve due to desynchronization with the cardiac cycle.

Step-by-step explanation:

If the T-wave is misinterpreted as an R-wave on an electrocardiogram (ECG), the gating for image acquisition in medical imaging procedures, such as a gated blood pool scan, would be incorrect. Given that the R-wave typically signifies the beginning of ventricular contraction (systole) and the T-wave represents the repolarization of the ventricles, gating on both would lead to a distorted synchronization with the cardiac cycle. Consequently, the filling curve, which shows changes in blood volume within the heart chambers over time, would likely be distorted and difficult to interpret since the timing of data acquisition would be out of sync with the actual cardiac events.