Keywords:
SPECT, MPI, automatic quantification, left-ventricular ejection fraction, dynamic programming
The gated single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) is a widely established method to assess left-ventricular (LV) functions and diagnose coronary artery disease in western countries. Software packages for automatic quantification from SPECT MPI have been developed in order to make the interpretations more standardized. However, it has been frequently reported that there are underestimation of end-systolic volume (ESV) and overestimation of LV ejection fraction (EF), especially for the eastern Asian female patients with a small heart. Having recognized the superiority of an optimization-based approach, in this study we developed a dynamic programming-based automatic quantification method for the gated SPECT MPI. Our method was successfully tested with real patients and some of them have small hearts. The preliminary results demonstrated that it performed well when compared with the QGS program and echocardiography as a reference standard.
- Shaojie Tang
- School of Automation, Xi'an University of Posts and Telecommunications, Xi'an, Shaanxi
- Jin-Long Huang
- Cardiovascular center, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan
- Guang-Uei Hung
- Department of Nuclear Medicine, Chang Bing Show Chwan Memorial Hospital, Changhua, Taiwan
- Shih-Chuan Tsai
- Department of Nuclear Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan
- Cheng Wang
- Department of Cardiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu
- Dianfu Li
- Department of Cardiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu
- Weihua Zhou
- School of Computing, University of Southern Mississippi, Long Beach, MS
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