Diagnosis and quantitation of pulmonary arteriovenous malformations by factor analysis.

The diagnosis of a pulmonary arteriovenous malformation (AVM) was made by performing a computer-assisted first-pass cardiopulmonary imaging procedure using Tc-99m pertechnetate and processing the image information using factor analysis. This analytical technique is capable of separating partially overlapping structures by automatically extracting factors with different temporal behavior (time-activity curves) which correspond to functional areas without anatomic constraint. This procedure was accomplished successfully despite the presence of four-chamber enlargement, mitral stenosis and regurgitation, tricuspid regurgitation, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and pulmonary hypertension. The magnitude of the right-to-left shunt resulting from the AVM was quantitated using both the factor analysis data and an independent Tc-99m MAA computer-assisted imaging procedure. Both methods gave comparable values.