This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Quint, R. I. Articles by Tatum, J. L. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Quint, R. I. Articles by Tatum, J. L. Pubmed/NCBI databases Medline Plus Health Information Nuclear Scans Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Effect of Variation in Heart Size on Quantitative Thallium SPECT

Departments of Radiology & Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, Medical College of Virginia, Richmond, Virgina

Roger B. Rehr

Departments of Radiology & Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, Medical College of Virginia, Richmond, Virgina

John J. Pippin

Departments of Radiology & Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, Medical College of Virginia, Richmond, Virgina

James L. Tatum

Departments of Radiology & Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, Medical College of Virginia, Richmond, Virgina

Quantitative single-photon emission tomographic (SPECT) thallium 201 (²⁰¹Tl) cardiac studies are frequently used to improve test accuracy. One common technique uses polar mapping of relative tracer distribution to compare patient data to emplates from "normal" patient data. Commercial software does not correct for cardiac size variations. This study's purpose was to determine the effect of uncorrected variations in heart size on the variance of the normal population, which is the basis of template significance levels. Twenty-one male volunteers with low probability (< 5%) for coronary disease underwent SPECT-Tl stress test. Data analysis with and without size correction was performed. Data were corrected for size by use of a three-dimensional compression/expansion algorithm. Quantitative data were generated by radial search to maximum activity in short-axis reconstructions. The mean activity and its variance was calculated from 288 points encompassing the myocardium. Mean and variance differences were analyzed by paired t test. There was no difference in activity means (pT > .9), indicating that size correction does not distort the data. The corrected data had, however, significantly lower variance (pT < .0001). This shows that ventricular size variation contributes significantly to "normal" template variance and may adversely affect diagnostic accuracy in the absence of volume correction.

Angiology, Vol. 42, No. 9, 734-740 (1991)
DOI: 10.1177/000331979104200907


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?