Usefulness of abdominal belt for restricting respiratory cardiac motion and improving image quality in myocardial perfusion PET

摘要

Abstract Background The current study evaluated the usefulness of a belt technique for restricting respiratory motion of the heart and for improving image quality of_(13)N-ammonia myocardial PET/CT, and it assessed the tolerability of the belt technique in the clinical setting. Methods Myocardial_(13)N-ammonia PET/CT scanning was performed in 8 volunteers on Discovery PET/CT 690 with an optical respiratory motion tracking system. Emission scans were performed with and without an abdominal belt. The amplitude of left ventricular (LV) respiratory motion was measured on respiratory-gated PET images. The degree of erroneous decreases in regional myocardial uptake was visually assessed on ungated PET images using a 5-point scale (0?=?normal, 1/2/3?=?mild/moderate/severe decrease, 4?=?defect). The tolerability of the belt technique was evaluated in 53 patients. Results All subjects tolerated the belt procedure. The amplitude of the LV respiratory motion decreased significantly with the belt (8.1?±?7.1 vs 12.1?±?6.1?mm, P ?=?.0078). The belt significantly improved the image quality scores in the anterior (0.29?±?0.81 vs 0.71?±?1.04, P ?=?.015) and inferior (0.33?±?0.92 vs 1.04?±?1.04, P ? Conclusions The belt technique restricts LV respiratory motion and improves the image quality of myocardial PET/CT, and it is well tolerated by patients.