Attenuation corrected myocardial perfusion SPECT provides powerful risk stratification in patients with coronary artery disease

Excerpt

An increasing number of nuclear cardiology laboratories, including ours, image all of their myocardial perfusion SPECT patients using attenuation correction (AC). When compared to non-AC, AC studies generate images with increased linearity between tracer uptake and reconstructed counts yielding increased perfusion defect contrast.1,2 This may result in improved detection of left main coronary disease.3 AC also provides higher left ventricular count homogeneity in normal patients4-6 because it eliminates the dependence of body habitus on the normal perfusion distribution. AC of diaphragm in men and breast tissue in women results in very similar normal left ventricular counts distribution for males and females.5,6 These attributes render AC studies easier to interpret, increasing the confidence of image interpretation7 as well as the diagnostic accuracy for obstructive coronary artery disease.3-17 …