title: Validation of automated quantitation of myocardial perfusion and fatty acid metabolism abnormalities on SPECT images.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Myocardial perfusion and fatty acid imaging have played important roles in the risk stratification of patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). However, visual image assessment requires considerable experience and training. Therefore, an automated program has been developed that can quantify perfusion and fatty acid uptake on myocardial single emission computed tomography (SPECT). The present study aimed to validate the automated quantitative program.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 50 patients were studied with known or suspected CAD who underwent stress ²⁰¹Thallium (²⁰¹Tl) and resting ¹²³I-labelled β-methyl iodophenyl pentadecanoic acid (BMIPP) SPECT. The SPECT images were quantified in 17 segments visually and using our Heart Score View software. Values were compared with those in a normal Japanese database and calculated summed stress (SSS), summed rest (SRS), summed difference (SDS), and summed BMIPP scores for each modality. Summed scores obtained using standard visual analysis and Heart Score View significantly correlated (²⁰¹Tl: SSS: r=0.934; SRS: r=0.827; SDS: r=0.743 summed BMIPP score: r=0.913) (each P<0.001) and Bland-Altman analysis revealed good agreement between the 2 approaches.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Correlations between scores determined using Heart Score View software and standard visual interpretation were linear for both perfusion and fatty acid images. Thus, our new automated program might be useful for the risk stratification of patients with CAD in the clinical setting.
authors: Department of Photobiology, Division of Molecular, Cellular Imaging, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan. kyoshi@med.hokudai.ac.jp
authors: Keiichiro
authors: K
authors: Yoshinaga
authors: Takayuki
authors: T
authors: Matsuki
authors: Akiyoshi
authors: A
authors: Hashimoto
authors: Kazumasa
authors: K
authors: Tsukamoto
authors: Tomoaki
authors: T
authors: Nakata
authors: Nagara
authors: N
authors: Tamaki
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000378:metabolism*; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005227:Fatty Acids / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009206:Myocardium / Q000378:metabolism*; D010477:Perfusion; D011859:Radiography; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012984:Software; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D005227:Fatty Acids