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Investigation of the physical effects of respiratory motion compensation in a large population of patients undergoing Tc-99m cardiac perfusion SPECT/CT stress imaging

  • Original Article
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Journal of Nuclear Cardiology Aims and scope

Abstract

Background

Respiratory motion can deteriorate image fidelity in cardiac perfusion SPECT. We determined the extent of respiratory motion, assessed its impact on image fidelity, and investigated the existence of gender differences, thereby examining the influence of respiratory motion in a large population of patients.

Methods

One thousand one hundred and three SPECT/CT patients underwent visual tracking of markers on their anterior surface during stress acquisition to track respiratory motion. The extent of motion was estimated by registration. Visual indicators of changes in cardiac slices with motion correction, and the correlation between the extent of motion with changes in segmental-counts were assessed.

Results

Respiratory motion in the head-to-feet direction was the largest component of motion, varying between 1.1 and 37.4 mm, and was statistically significantly higher (p = 0.002) for males than females. In 33.0% of the patients, motion estimates were larger than 10 mm. Patients progressively show more distinct visual changes with an increase in the extent of motion. The increase in segmental-count differences in the anterior, antero-lateral, and inferior segments correlated with the extent of motion.

Conclusions

Respiratory motion correction diminished the artefactual reduction in anterior and inferior wall counts associated with respiratory motion. The extent of improvement was strongly related to the magnitude of motion.

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Abbreviations

SPECT:

Single photon emission computed tomography

CT:

Computed tomography

OSEM:

Ordered subset expectation maximization

MLEM:

Maximum likelihood expectation maximization

SSD:

Sum-squared-difference

BMI:

Body mass index

SEE:

Standard error of the estimate

VOI:

Volume of interest

6-DOF:

6 degrees of freedom

TEW:

Triple energy window

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) under Grant No R01 EB001457, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute under Grant No R01 HL122484, and Philips Healthcare. The contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health or Philips Healthcare. The authors would also like to acknowledge the assistance of the technologists within the Division of Nuclear medicine at UMass Memorial Medical Center who assisted in the recruitment and imaging of the patient volunteers.

Disclosure

All the authors were supported in part by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) under Grant No R01 EB001457, and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute under Grant No R01 HL122484. Philips Health Care assist by providing information regarding the list mode rebinning routine used herein.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, 55 Lake Avenue North, Worcester, MA, 01655, USA

    P. Hendrik Pretorius PhD, Karen L. Johnson NMT, Seth T. Dahlberg MD & Michael A. King PhD

Authors
  1. P. Hendrik Pretorius PhD
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  2. Karen L. Johnson NMT
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  3. Seth T. Dahlberg MD
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  4. Michael A. King PhD
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Correspondence to P. Hendrik Pretorius PhD.

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Pretorius, P.H., Johnson, K.L., Dahlberg, S.T. et al. Investigation of the physical effects of respiratory motion compensation in a large population of patients undergoing Tc-99m cardiac perfusion SPECT/CT stress imaging. J. Nucl. Cardiol. 27, 80–95 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12350-017-0890-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12350-017-0890-3

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