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Preventing Patient Motion during Tomographic Myocardial Perfusion Imaging

Departments of Radiology, Pediatrics and Medicine, The Albany Medical College, Albany, New York

Correspondence: For correspondence or reprints contact: Jeffrey A. Cooper, MD, Nuclear Medicine, A-72, 47 New Scotland Ave, Albany Medical Center, Albany, NY, 12208.

ABSTRACT

We evaluated whether use of a device that positions and supports the upper extremities and back during tomographic myocardial perfusion imaging reduces the incidence and severity of patient motion and patient motion artifact. Methods: We enrolled 190 patients referred for stress/redistribution myocardial perfusion imaging. All patients were imaged once with the patient support device (PSD) and once without it. Patients were randomly assigned to use the PSD either during poststress or redistribution imaging. The presence and severity of patient motion was determined by visual inspection and quantitative motion detection. The presence of reconstruction artifact due to motion was detected visually and confirmed by motion correction. Results: Use of the PSD reduced the incidence of motion from 38% ± 3.7% to 26% ± 3.3% (p < 0.05) and reduced the amount of motion by 5.3 ± 2.2 mm (p < 0.05). Patients who did move, moved less when using the PSD by both visual (p < 0.02) and quantitative criteria (p < 0.05). Use of the PSD reduced the incidence of reconstruction artifacts to one third of control (p < 0.05). Conclusion: The use of this positioning and support device during tomographic myocardial perfusion imaging reduces the incidence and severity of patient motion and motion artifact.

Key Words: single-photon emission computed tomography • thallium-201 • patient motion