TECHNOLOGISTS’ SECTION Quantification of SPECT myocardial perfusion imaging

Radionuclide myocardial perfusion imaging has been established as a noninvasive method for diagnosis of coronary artery disease. The assessment of myocardial perfusion imaging can be done by either qualitative or quantitative analyses. Through use of both types of analyses, clinically useful reproducible interpretation of myocardial perfusion images requires considerable operator experience. The reasons for problems with interpretation are many. In particular, the reproducibility of interpretation of myocardial perfusion images depends on (1) experience of the reader, (2) quality of the images, (3) severity of abnormality, (4) degree of change on serial images, and (5) uniform criteria for interpretation. It has been widely accepted that quantification of myocardial perfusion significantly improves diagnostic accuracy in detecting coronary artery disease. Furthermore, the concept of quantification of perfusion imaging includes two significant aspects that must be taken into account. The first is methodological, and the other is more related to the clinical application of the quantification process in nuclear cardiology.