Gated myocardial perfusion SPECT imaging

Abstract

Nuclear medicine has well established role in the diagnosis of many cardiovascular disorders. This is performed by several diagnostic procedures that are able to identify the perfusion and functional status of the heart. The clinical examinations involved are planar and tomographic gated blood pool, first pass, myocardial perfusion single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) performed with or without electrocardiographic (ECG) gating. This range of diagnostic tools has their well defined use in answering many questions raised by the referring physicians. A detailed description of these examinations and their clinical as well as technical background are outside the focus of this review. However, the later diagnostic test has become a standard in patients undergoing myocardial perfusion imaging since it synergist the interpretation process by providing valuable information about the heart function. Thus, the main objective of this review is to give the reader a comprehensive overview about the current status of gated myocardial perfusion tomographic imaging and its methodological aspects with some emphasis placed on different computational methods used in clinical practice.