SPECT/CT-plethysmography--non-invasive quantitation of bone and soft tissue blood flow.
Preserved blood flow to bone and soft tissue is essential for their normal function. To date only numerous methods are suitable for direct bone blood flow (BBF) measurement. Here, we introduce a novel quantitative method for bone and soft tissue blood flow (BBF and SBF, respectively) measurement. It involves a combination of SPECT/CT imaging for blood pool localization in a specific region of interest ("soft" and "hard" tissues composing a limb) with veno-occlusive plethysmography. Using it, we measured BBF and SBF in the four limbs of 10 healthy subjects. At steady state blood flow measurements in the four limbs were similar, ranging between 5.5-6.5 and 1.87-2.48 ml per 100 ml of tissue per minute for BBF and SBF, respectively. Our results are comparable to those in the literature. We concluded that SPECT/CT-plethysmography appears to be a readily available and easy to use method to measure BBF and SBF, and can be added to the armamentarium of methods for BBF measurements.
Dayan
Lior
L
Ortopedic B and Recanati Autonomic Dysfunction Center, Medicine A, Rambam Health Care Campus, Haifa, Israel.
Keidar
Zohar
Z
Israel
Ora
O
Milloul
Victor
V
Sachs
Johnathan
J
Jacob
Giris
G