Transmission scan truncation with small-field-of-view dedicated cardiac SPECT systems: impact and automated quality control.
BACKGROUND
Small-field-of-view (FOV) dedicated cardiac single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) systems will frequently exhibit severe transmission scan truncation that may degrade attenuation correction (AC). This study evaluated the impact of transmission scan truncation on AC and developed automated transmission scan truncation quality control (ATSTQC) for small-FOV systems.


RESULTS
Small-FOV data were simulated from the data of 10 patients acquired by a full-FOV Philips Vertex system. AC images of the full- and small-FOV data were compared by mean and maximum absolute differences of myocardial counts, and differences in stress and rest severity scores were calculated by use of the Emory Cardiac Toolbox.small-FOV systems. ATSTQC was developed to identify critical truncation that significantly increased these indices and then tested with 18 independent patients. Left-side truncation resulted in significant distortion of the quantitative indices. ATSTQC, developed on the condition that left-side truncation is critical, showed high concordance with the qualitative assessment in identification of critical truncation.


CONCLUSIONS
Identification of left-side truncation as critical truncation is necessary to judge whether accurate AC can be obtained. The developed ATSTQC can accurately detect critical truncation and will help clinicians decide whether to use AC in a particular study.
Chen
Ji
J
Emory University School of Medicine, 1364 Clifton Road, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA. jchen22@emory.edu
Galt
James R
JR
Case
James A
JA
Ye
Jinghan
J
Cullom
S James
SJ
Durbin
Mary K
MK
Shao
Ling
L
Garcia
Ernest V
EV
D016477:Artifacts; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D011786:Quality Control; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D018487:Ventricular Dysfunction, Left / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*