Flickering or hot-pixel artifact on gated myocardial perfusion SPECT imaging: an illustrated review for technologists
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Introduction
Gated SPECT myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) as a validated and commonly used diagnostic tool in nuclear cardiology is subject to errors as a result of multiple technical factors.1,2 Other than common imaging artifacts, there are some rare artifacts that a technologist should be aware of their presence and consequences. One of such artifacts is the flickering or hot-pixel artifact which affects gated images both qualitatively and quantitatively.3
Gated SPECT MPI is now the most widely accepted and used modality for concomitant evaluation of myocardial perfusion and function of the left ventricle (LV).1In contrast to nongated SPECT MPI, multiple frames (for example, 8 or 16 frames) are acquired at each angular position according to the protocol set by the technologist. Each frame is assigned to a short interval of the cardiac cycle. Corresponding frames at different angular positions are reconstructed together. Therefore, the tomographic slices reconstructed from each...
Notes
Disclosure
No conflict of interests is declared.
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