A Krakovich1, U Zaretsky2, E Gelbart3, I Moalem4, A Naimushin4, E Rozen4, M Scheinowitz2, R Goldkorn3,4. 1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel. krakovich@mail.tau.ac.il. 2. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel. 3. Sackler School of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel. 4. Nuclear Cardiology Unit, Sheba Medical Center, Lev Leviev Heart Institute, Ramat Gan, Israel.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: As myocardial blood flow measurement (MBF) in SPECT systems became recently available, significant effort has been devoted to its validation. For that purpose, we have developed a cardiac phantom that is able to mimic physiological radiotracer variation in the left ventricle cavity and in the myocardium, while performing beating-like motion. The new phantom is integrated inside a standard anthropomorphic torso allowing a realistic tissue attenuation and gamma-ray scattering METHODS AND RESULTS: A mechanical cardiac phantom was integrated in a commercially available anthropomorphic torso. Using a GE Discovery 530c SPECT, measurements were performed. It was found that gamma-ray attenuation effects are significant and limit the MBF measurements to global/three-vessel resolution. Dynamic SPECT experiments were performed to validate MBF accuracy and showed mean relative error of 14%. Finally, the effect of varying radiotracer dose on the accuracy of dynamic SPECT was studied CONCLUSIONS: A dynamic cardiac phantom has been developed and successfully integrated in a standard SPECT torso. A good agreement was found between SPECT-reported MBF values and the expected results. Despite increased noise-to-signal ratio when radiotracer doses were reduced, MBF uncertainty did not increase significantly down to very low doses, thanks to the temporal integration of the activity during the measurement.
BACKGROUND: As myocardial blood flow measurement (MBF) in SPECT systems became recently available, significant effort has been devoted to its validation. For that purpose, we have developed a cardiac phantom that is able to mimic physiological radiotracer variation in the left ventricle cavity and in the myocardium, while performing beating-like motion. The new phantom is integrated inside a standard anthropomorphic torso allowing a realistic tissue attenuation and gamma-ray scattering METHODS AND RESULTS: A mechanical cardiac phantom was integrated in a commercially available anthropomorphic torso. Using a GE Discovery 530c SPECT, measurements were performed. It was found that gamma-ray attenuation effects are significant and limit the MBF measurements to global/three-vessel resolution. Dynamic SPECT experiments were performed to validate MBF accuracy and showed mean relative error of 14%. Finally, the effect of varying radiotracer dose on the accuracy of dynamic SPECT was studied CONCLUSIONS: A dynamic cardiac phantom has been developed and successfully integrated in a standard SPECT torso. A good agreement was found between SPECT-reported MBF values and the expected results. Despite increased noise-to-signal ratio when radiotracer doses were reduced, MBF uncertainty did not increase significantly down to very low doses, thanks to the temporal integration of the activity during the measurement.
Authors: Pieter De Bondt; Kenneth Nichols; Stijn Vandenberghe; Patrick Segers; Olivier De Winter; Christophe Van de Wiele; Pascal Verdonck; Arsalan Shazad; Abu H Shoyeb; Johan De Sutter Journal: J Nucl Med Date: 2003-06 Impact factor: 10.057
Authors: Pieter De Bondt; Tom Claessens; Bart Rys; Olivier De Winter; Stijn Vandenberghe; Patrick Segers; Pascal Verdonck; Rudi Andre Dierckx Journal: J Nucl Med Date: 2005-01 Impact factor: 10.057
Authors: T R Simon; B S Walker; S Matthiesen; C Miller; J G Triebel; J E Dowdey; T C Smitherman Journal: J Nucl Med Date: 1989-04 Impact factor: 10.057