Cardiac myocardial perfusion imaging with new SPECT cameras: Comparing apples and oranges

Excerpt

New SPECT cameras have been introduced in the last decade which are specifically designed for cardiac imaging. These cardiac SPECT cameras have improved sensitivity with maintained or improved spatial resolution1 that has led to reduced acquisition times, lower patient doses, and enhanced image quality. Two of these new cameras are based on solid-state cadmium–zinc–telluride (CZT) detectors.2,3 Although they have improved performance for myocardial perfusion imaging, they also have certain limitations, such as a very restricted field-of-view in the case of the multiple pinhole system, which preclude use for general nuclear medicine applications. In an effort to bring some of the benefits seen with the cardiac systems to more general-purpose protocols, a conventional dual-headed gamma camera design that employs CZT detectors with matched collimation was introduced. This multi-purpose CZT-based camera may still be used for cardiac imaging and so it is of interest then to see how its performance compares to the cardiac SPECT systems. Such a performance comparison was the aim of the study presented in this issue of the journal.4 The authors present some excellent data, but care must be taken in its interpretation. …