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Clinical Investigations |
1 Department of Nuclear Cardiology, Jean Minjoz University Hospital, Besançon, France
| ABSTRACT |
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5% activity leap in the heart region on the 16th and 17th frames was more frequent in group 1 than in group 2. Two consecutive acquisitions after exercise stress showed that the leap was >5% in 24 patients (83%) and 12 patients (41%) at the first and second acquisitions, respectively (group 3). In all patients, the leap was <5% at rest. Dynamic studies showed that the activity in the heart region steadily decreased in all patients after exercise stress. We suggest that decreasing 201Tl concentrations in myocardium or blood could be a major reason for the described artifacts. Conclusion: We proposed that the pharmacokinetics of 201Tl-chloride be evaluated within a short time after injection in humans after exercise stress. Now, in our department, we have begun acquisition approximately 12 min after 201Tl administration, and the above-mentioned phenomenon has not appeared. However, to avoid the artifacts caused by early redistribution of 201Tl, acquisition must not begin too late.
Key Words: myocardial SPECT quality control SPECT artifacts dual-head gamma camera
| INTRODUCTION |
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Other types of artifacts, such as those resulting from motion of the patient or heart during tomographic acquisition, are unpredictable. The most frequent cause of these artifacts is voluntary or involuntary patient movement, which must be differentiated from vertical continuous motion of the heart during poststress acquisitionthe so-called upward creep of the heart. This phenomenon was first described by Friedman at al. (8). Heart motion can be detected by careful image inspection in cine mode; the movement of even 1 pixel can provoke reconstruction errors and create artifacts that resemble anterior and posterior perfusion defects (46).
Today, multidetector SPECT systems are used in most nuclear medicine departments. Although dual- or triple-head gamma cameras present more quality control problems, their use shortens the acquisition and, as a result, reduces the risk of patient movement and consequent artifacts.
For some time, we have been using a dual-head gamma camera for 201Tl myocardial SPECT with a standard protocol for data acquisition (the same protocol was applied previously to single-head gamma cameras), and we have been surprised by the increased number of false-positive findings. Although a previous study (9) reported that the incidence of false perfusion abnormalities was higher when dual-head gamma cameras were used, we wondered whether our gamma camera was malfunctioning or whether our acquisition protocol was inadequate.
Careful analysis of acquisition data showed, in some patients after exercise stress, a sudden increase in the counting rate between heart regions on the 16th and 17th frames (which correspond to passage from the first to the second detector). This phenomenon did not appear in these patients at rest (Fig. 1). The aim of our study was to determine whether this leap in activity was caused by patient movement, acquisition, or other errors.
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| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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For the second phase of the investigation, we performed a dynamic (sequential) data acquisition for 10 min (15 frames, 40 s per frame) on 18 patients after exercise stress. Imaging began at the 45° left anterior oblique position approximately 3 min after injection.
We also retrospectively selected 10 patients on whom poststress and rest 201Tl SPECT was performed using a single-head gamma camera (DST-7; SMV International), applying the same acquisition protocol as was used in the dual-head studies. For these studies, the acquisition began 35 min after injection.
Data Analysis
For SPECT image sequences, we used a rectangular region of interest (ROI) (Fig. 2A) so that the heart was inside the ROI on each of the 32 frames. The ROIs corresponded to the matrix size (by X) and to the number of heart pixels (by Y). Activity curves were constructed for each ROI; we then compared activity in the ROIs on the 16th and 17th frames. The percentage of the leap was calculated according to:
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For visual analysis, we normalized the curves by the activity value in the ROI on the first frame of the rest study (dual-head studies) and by the maximum activity value (single-head study).
Three independent observers visually interpreted the SPECT perfusion images from group 3 by dividing short-axis and vertical long-axis tomograms from each patient into 20 segments and scoring them with a 5-point system (0 = normal, 1 = equivocal, 2 = moderate, and 3 = severe reduction of radioisotope uptake and 4 = absence of detectable radiotracer in a segment) (10).
Data were expressed as mean ± SD. Patient data were compared using a 2-tailed t test for paired and unpaired data when appropriate.
Phantom Experiments
We used a phantom of the human chest and myocardium (Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN). The phantom consisted of 3 chambers: 2 peripheral chambers simulating the lungs and a central chamber filled with a 18.5 MBq/L solution of 99mTc simulating the mediastinum with background noise. A myocardium chamber filled with a 148 MBq/L solution was fixed in the usual heart position in the central chamber. The scintigraphic data were acquired twice, using 25 s per frame and 120 s per frame. We used 99mTc because its half-life is shorter than that of 201Tl, so that the radioactivity in the myocardial chamber could be decreased significantly in a relatively short time. The aim of these experiments was to prove that a decrease in activity in the heart region could provoke the leap in counts between the 16th and 17th frames.
| RESULTS |
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SPECT Studies
Figure 3 shows representative activity curves for each group of patients. In group 1, the leap in intensity between the 16th and 17th frames was 6.45% ± 3.31% and -1.17% ± 1.94% after exercise stress and at rest, respectively. In group 2, the leap was 4.38% ± 2.75 and 0.35% ± 2.90 after exercise stress and at rest, respectively. In group 3, the leap was 9.0% ± 3.70% at the first poststress acquisition, 4.53% ± 2.17% at the second poststress acquisition, and 0.11% ± 2.12% at rest; the mean difference between the leaps at the first and second poststress acquisitions was 4.51% ± 2.89%.
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The results obtained using a circular ROI confirmed those obtained using a rectangular ROI. The leap was often greater when a circular ROI was used.
The myocardial perfusion scores calculated by the 3 observers are summarized in Table 3. Differences between the scores at the first and second acquisitions were significant (P < 0.01) for all observers.
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| DISCUSSION |
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Patient motion is a frequent cause of artificial perfusion defects on myocardial SPECT scans (47). We evoked this hypothesis, but careful image inspection (visual analysis of projection views in a cine format and sinogram and linogram analysis) showed no visible patient motion.
Upward creep of the heart may be a cause of reconstruction artifacts (8,11,12). The frequency of this phenomenon has been estimated to be 16%29% (8,11). In our study, a 5% leap in activity, which indicates a 1- or 2-pixel upward creep, was observed in 68%83% of patients. Moreover, the leap was detected in some patients >15 min after exercise stress; upward creep cannot last so long a time.
We applied a rectangular ROI because a rectangular ROI is generally used for backprojection. Of course, timeactivity curves constructed using a rectangular ROI can be altered by a change in heart position or by background noise. However, the results obtained using a rectangular ROI strongly correlated with those obtained using a circular ROI, which could not have been affected by upward creep or background noise because the ROI was always centered on the heart.
Therefore, we hypothesized that the decrease in activity could be a major reason for the described phenomenon, because the 16th and 17th frames were acquired with an interval of approximately 10 min. The results of phantom experiments confirmed that decreasing activity caused by nuclear decay provokes the leap in counts.
The leap in activity was present only in poststress studies and was present then only if the acquisition was started relatively early after injection. This phenomenon never appeared in patients at rest; the acquisition began at least 15 min after injection. Therefore, we suggested that activity in the heart region becomes stable at approximately 15 min after injection.
Our dynamic studies showed that activity decreased for 10 min of the observation. However, we did not observe the plateau of activity. The results of single-head studies confirmed those of dynamic studies. Moreover, although the arc of the detector was the same in poststress and rest studies, there was an obvious difference between the shapes of the activity curves constructed for the heart region during the first 1520 min. These findings support the hypothesis of an activity decrease.
Statistically significant differences between perfusion scores show that the described phenomenon affects clinical interpretation of images. This finding confirms the results of our visual analysis showing that the activity leap can provoke artificial perfusion defects.
The described leap in intensity could be a reason for the previously reported higher incidence of false-positive perfusion abnormalities detected by dual-head gamma cameras (9). We must also be vigilant about the presence of similar phenomena in gated SPECT studies.
Although 201Tl is a radiotracer used in routine nuclear cardiology, there have been few studies on its pharmacokinetic distribution in humans (13,14). We suggest that more studies are necessary to measure 201Tl distribution in humans after exercise stress, especially a short time after injection. These studies must answer the question of whether the decrease in activity in the heart region is caused by modifications of the 201Tl blood concentration or by modifications of 201Tl myocardial uptake and washout.
| CONCLUSION |
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| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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| FOOTNOTES |
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For correspondence or reprints contact: Oleg Blagosklonov, MD, Lab of Biophysics and Nuclear Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Place Saint-Jacques, 25030 Besançon Cedex, France.
E-mail: oleg.blagosklonov{at}univ-fcomte.fr
| REFERENCES |
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