SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR CARDIOVASCULAR IMAGING, CARDIOVASCULAR FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS, AND DETECTING CORONARY ARTERY DISEASE

摘要

One aspect of the present invention relates to screening patients for an early stage of coronary artery disease. According to this method, a patient 305 is screened based on the time-activity curve for a radioactive tracer 301 passing through a left ventricle region 303 of the patient's body.305 According to another aspect of the invention, an array of gamma particle detectors 200 is employed to obtain data for a region of interest taht is larger than and encompasses a left ventricle region 303 of the patient's body 305. An analysis of the data identifies the subset of the region of interest that corresponds to the left ventricle region.303 According to a further aspect of the present invention, a second technique is employed to locate the left ventricle region 303. A still further aspect of the present invention relates to high temporal resolution gamma cameras 200.