TITLE:
Assessment of the Patient Movement for Lesion during Myocardial Perfusion SPECT Imaging by Cardiac Phantom
AUTHORS:
Eser Erim, Turkan Ertay, Ismail Evren, Mine Eren, Cengiz Tasci, Hatice Durak
KEYWORDS:
SPECT, Myocardial Perfusion Scintigraphy, Cardiac Phantom
JOURNAL NAME:
World Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology,
Vol.5 No.2,
April
30,
2015
ABSTRACT: Movement of the patient during myocardial
perfusion SPECT leads to some artifacts that make the interpretation difficult.
In this study, myocardial perfusion imaging protocol was performed on a cardiac
phantom and SPECT was performed by simulating patient movements. A lesion model
with dimensions of 1.2 × 2 × 2 cm was created on the inferoseptal wall of the cardiac
phantom. Imaging was done in circular orbits in 64 × 64 matrix and step and
shoot mode. First set of images taken with no movement was referred as the
reference image. During imaging, patient movement was simulated by moving the
phantom in ±X and ±Y directions between the frames starting from 8th frame to
16th frame. At the end of imaging, Bull’s eye maps of images with movement were
com-pared with Bull’s eye maps of reference images. Bull’s eye maps were
evaluated by an experienced nuclear medicine physician. Shifting patient’s
movement in all directions by ±1 and ±2 cm, dis-placed the localization of the
lesion mildly and this did not hamper the evaluation. However, movements of ±3
or ±4 cm resulted in artifacts which in turn caused partial or no visualization
of the lesion. In motion corrected images, the lesion could be evaluated in ±1
and ±2 cm movements while lesion could not be evaluated in ±3 and ±4 cm
movements. As a result, movement greater than ±3 cm causes significant image
artifacts and this should be considered as a potential source of error in
myocardial perfusion studies.