Small average differences in attenuation corrected images between men and women in myocardial perfusion scintigraphy: a novel normal stress database

BACKGROUND The American Society of Nuclear Cardiology and the Society of Nuclear Medicine state that incorporation of attenuation-corrected (AC) images in myocardial perfusion scintigraphy (MPS) will improve image quality, interpretive certainty, and diagnostic accuracy. However, commonly used software packages for MPS usually include normal stress databases for non-attenuation corrected (NC) images but not for attenuation-corrected (AC) images. The aim of the study was to develop and compare different normal stress databases for MPS in relation to NC vs. AC images, male vs. female gender, and presence vs. absence of obesity. The principal hypothesis was that differences in mean count values between men and women would be smaller with AC than NC images, thereby allowing for construction and use of gender-independent AC stress database. METHODS Normal stress perfusion databases were developed with data from 126 male and 205 female patients with normal MPS. The following comparisons were performed for all patients and separately for normal weight vs. obese patients: men vs. women for AC; men vs. women for NC; AC vs. NC for men; and AC vs. NC for women. RESULTS When comparing AC for men vs. women, only minor differences in mean count values were observed, and there were no differences for normal weight vs. obese patients. For all other analyses major differences were found, particularly for the inferior wall. CONCLUSIONS The results support the hypothesis that it is possible to use not only gender independent but also weight independent AC stress databases.