ABSTRACT
Myocardial perfusion imaging, first using 201TI and later 99mTc-based radiopharmaceuticals, has been in clinical use since the early 1980s. While myocardial imaging was originally performed using planar techniques, by mid-1990 tomographic imaging had become the standard method for imaging the myocardium. Stress single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) is now a well-established technique for the noninvasive evaluation of coronary artery disease and is the most widely utilized modality of stress testing in the United States (1). Nevertheless, the accuracy of the technique is limited by image artifacts (2). These artifacts cause false-positive perfusion defects and impact test specificity. Although the initial validation of SPECT reported a specificity of greater than 90% (3,4), widespread clinical application of the technique has been associated with specificity in the range of 60% or lower (5,6).
