NMC: Myocardial perfusion SPECT with prone and half-time imaging feasible
Myocardial perfusion SPECT with prone and half-time imaging, which nearly halves acquisition time, is feasible and associated with good image quality in most studies, according to research published in the May issue of Nuclear Medicine Communications.
Myocardial perfusion imaging with SPECT is associated with reduced specificity due to tissue attenuation. This can be corrected by prone imaging; however, prone imaging necessitates additional imaging time. Image processing with iterative reconstruction allows for a half-time acquisition, according to Ariel Gutstein, MD, from the department of cardiology, Rabin Medical Center, Beilinson Hospital, Petah Tikva, Israel, and colleagues.
Gutstein and colleagues designed the study to assess the feasibility of myocardial perfusion with SPECT using prone imaging with half-time acquisition.
Ninety-one patients referred for SPECT myocardial perfusion imaging were enrolled for the half-time supine and prone SPECT protocol. Patients with known myocardial infarction were excluded by the researchers.
Half-time prone imaging was performed by Gutstein and colleagues when supine imaging was visually equivocal or abnormal. Image quality was compared for each patient between supine and prone imaging.
Acquisition time was 17.9 minutes in the half-time group compared with 31.8 minutes in patients imaged with full-time acquisition. Image quality was good or excellent in 85.7 percent of studies in a supine position and in 81.3 percent of studies in a prone position, wrote Gutstein and colleagues.
No study was considered as nondiagnostic. Prone imaging reduced the rate of equivocal scans from 40.7 to 15.4 percent and of ischemic studies from 34.1 to 7.7 percent. In the study population, 80 percent of inferior and septal defects were corrected by the prone position, noted the researchers.
"In a selected population, half-time prone and supine imaging is feasible and is associated with a good image quality in most studies, whereas acquisition time is reduced almost by half," concluded Gutstein and colleagues.
Myocardial perfusion imaging with SPECT is associated with reduced specificity due to tissue attenuation. This can be corrected by prone imaging; however, prone imaging necessitates additional imaging time. Image processing with iterative reconstruction allows for a half-time acquisition, according to Ariel Gutstein, MD, from the department of cardiology, Rabin Medical Center, Beilinson Hospital, Petah Tikva, Israel, and colleagues.
Gutstein and colleagues designed the study to assess the feasibility of myocardial perfusion with SPECT using prone imaging with half-time acquisition.
Ninety-one patients referred for SPECT myocardial perfusion imaging were enrolled for the half-time supine and prone SPECT protocol. Patients with known myocardial infarction were excluded by the researchers.
Half-time prone imaging was performed by Gutstein and colleagues when supine imaging was visually equivocal or abnormal. Image quality was compared for each patient between supine and prone imaging.
Acquisition time was 17.9 minutes in the half-time group compared with 31.8 minutes in patients imaged with full-time acquisition. Image quality was good or excellent in 85.7 percent of studies in a supine position and in 81.3 percent of studies in a prone position, wrote Gutstein and colleagues.
No study was considered as nondiagnostic. Prone imaging reduced the rate of equivocal scans from 40.7 to 15.4 percent and of ischemic studies from 34.1 to 7.7 percent. In the study population, 80 percent of inferior and septal defects were corrected by the prone position, noted the researchers.
"In a selected population, half-time prone and supine imaging is feasible and is associated with a good image quality in most studies, whereas acquisition time is reduced almost by half," concluded Gutstein and colleagues.