Rapid radiotracer washout from the heart: effect on image quality in SPECT performed with a single-headed gamma camera system.

Technetium-99m-teboroxime demonstrates high extraction and rapid washout from the myocardium. To evaluate the feasibility of performing SPECT with this agent using a single-headed gamma camera system, a series of phantom studies were performed that simulated varying degrees of washout from normal and "ischemic" regions of the myocardium. In the absence of ischemic regions, short axis profiles were relatively unaffected by washout of less than 50% of activity over the duration of a SPECT acquisition. However, significant corruption of the SPECT data was observed when large (greater than a factor of 2) differences existed in the washout of activity from normal and "ischemic" myocardium. This corruption was observed with 30%-40% washout of activity from normal regions of the heart. Based on published washout rates, these results indicate that clinical studies with 99mTc-teboroxime may need to be completed within 2-4 min to order to prevent degradation of image quality due to differential washout effects.