title: Gated SPET myocardial perfusion acquisition within 5 minutes using focussing collimators and a three-head gamma camera.
abstract: Short acquisition protocols for gated single-photon emission tomography (SPET) myocardial perfusion imaging are desirable for sequential imaging to evaluate the myocardial response during pharmacological intervention. In this study a less than 5 min gated SPET acquisition protocol is proposed. Perfusion characteristics (defect severity) and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), end-diastolic and end-systolic volumes (EDV, ESV), wall motion (WM) and wall thickening (WT) were calculated, checked for reproducibility and compared with data obtained using a standard gated SPET acquisition protocol. Gated SPET images were recorded in 20 patients starting 60 min after the administration of 925 MBq technetium-99m tetrofosmin at rest. The 5 min gated SPET studies were acquired with a three-head camera equipped with Cardiofocal collimators. This protocol was repeated twice. In addition gated SPET studies were acquired according to a standard protocol using parallel-hole collimators. The severity of perfusion defects was quantified on polar maps using the non-gated image data and a normal database. LVEF, EDV, ESV, WM and WT were calculated from the gated images. The agreement between 5-min and standard gated SPET acquisitions was excellent for all investigated parameters. The reproducibility of repeated 5-min acquisitions for the quantification of perfusion defect severity was excellent (r=0.97). The agreement for segmental WT scores between repeated 5-min gated SPET acquisitions was good: kappa=0.71; major differences in segmental classification were observed in 2.5%. For WM a good agreement was found for segments with a tracer uptake >/=30% of the maximum: kappa=0.65, major differences =7.7%. Excellent reproducibility was found for LVEF, EDV and ESV measurements: r=0.97, 0.99 and 0.99, respectively. It is concluded that fast gated SPET perfusion studies acquired in less than 5 min yield accurate and reproducible measurements of myocardial perfusion and function (global and regional). In addition the results obtained with the 5-min gated SPET protocol correlate well with those obtained using a standard acquisition protocol.
authors.affiliation: Division of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital, Free University of Brussels (AZ VUB), Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Everaert
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vanhove
authors.forename: P R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Franken
mesh_terms: D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005260:Female; D015902:Gamma Cameras; D006321:Heart / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009943:Organophosphorus Compounds; D015609:Organotechnetium Compounds; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013997:Time Factors; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D016277:Ventricular Function, Left
chemical_list: D009943:Organophosphorus Compounds; D015609:Organotechnetium Compounds; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; C078700:technetium tc-99m tetrofosmin