Comparison of simultaneous and sequential SPECT imaging for discrimination tasks in assessment of cardiac defects

Phys Med Biol. 2010 Nov 21;55(22):6897-910. doi: 10.1088/0031-9155/55/22/019. Epub 2010 Nov 3.

Abstract

Simultaneous rest perfusion/fatty-acid metabolism studies have the potential to replace sequential rest/stress perfusion studies for the assessment of cardiac function. Simultaneous acquisition has the benefits of increased signal and lack of need for patient stress, but is complicated by cross-talk between the two radionuclide signals. We consider a simultaneous rest (99m)Tc-sestamibi/(123)I-BMIPP imaging protocol in place of the commonly used sequential rest/stress (99m)Tc-sestamibi protocol. The theoretical precision with which the severity of a cardiac defect and the transmural extent of infarct can be measured is computed for simultaneous and sequential SPECT imaging, and their performance is compared for discriminating (1) degrees of defect severity and (2) sub-endocardial from transmural defects. We consider cardiac infarcts for which reduced perfusion and metabolism are observed. From an information perspective, simultaneous imaging is found to yield comparable or improved performance compared with sequential imaging for discriminating both severity of defect and transmural extent of infarct, for three defects of differing location and size.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study

MeSH terms

  • Diagnosis, Differential
  • Fatty Acids / administration & dosage
  • Heart Diseases / diagnostic imaging*
  • Heart Diseases / pathology
  • Heart Diseases / physiopathology
  • Humans
  • Injections
  • Iodobenzenes / administration & dosage
  • Myocardial Infarction / diagnostic imaging
  • Myocardial Infarction / pathology
  • Myocardial Infarction / physiopathology
  • ROC Curve
  • Technetium Tc 99m Sestamibi / administration & dosage
  • Time Factors
  • Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon / methods*

Substances

  • Fatty Acids
  • Iodobenzenes
  • iodofiltic acid
  • Technetium Tc 99m Sestamibi