ABSTRACT
Scanning of the patient is arguably the most critical stage in the whole myocardial perfusion scintigraphy (MPS) process, since the entire study will have been a waste of time if the images produced are not of the highest quality. Single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging is the least tolerant of all nuclear medicine techniques when it comes to allowing for poor quality scans due to patient size, movement or inadequate count statistics, and nowhere is this more true than in cardiac SPECT imaging. Cardiac contraction and respiration already have a significant influence upon the degradation of image resolution, so any patient movement in either a vertical or a horizontal plane will result in further impairment as well as introduce image artefacts at the reconstruction stage (see Chapter 6).
