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Edward P Ficaro

Publications and source records attributed to Edward P Ficaro.

8 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2004

Attenuation correction for single photon emission computed tomography myocardial perfusion imaging.

The specificity of cardiac single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) perfusion imaging is significantly affected by internal photon absorption. Commonly referred to as anterior wall breast and inferior wall diaphragm attenuation artifacts, even when following characteristic patterns in women and men, the reduced activity produced can be difficult to differentiate from real perfusion defects. Unfortunately, wide variations in body habitus result in unpredictable variations in tissue attenuation and the specificity of uncorrected SPECT is unacceptably low in many laboratories. This manuscript reviews recent developments in attenuation correction methods for cardiac SPECT. Several commercial methods are now available, and although the initial success using these methods varied widely, as these methods have been improved successful clinical reports are appearing with increasing frequency. Recent developments have yielded more robust validated methods and significant clinical advantages have been achieved in the diagnostic evaluation of coronary heart disease (sensitivity as well as specificity) and myocardial viability. As these methods continue to mature, further advances should be anticipated.

Artifacts↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Advances in quantitative perfusion SPECT imaging.

Quantitative software for myocardial perfusion single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) has advanced significantly over the last 25 years. The strength and availability of quantitative tools for perfusion SPECT have in many ways provided a competitive advantage to nuclear cardiology compared with other higher-resolution noninvasive imaging modalities for the detection of coronary artery disease. The purpose of this report is to review the advances in quantitative diagnostic software for cardiac SPECT over the past 25 years. The time period ending with the 1980s ("the past") saw the origins of nuclear cardiology with the development of planar thallium 201 imaging and perfusion SPECT imaging without electrocardiographic gating. The period from 1990 to the present saw the development of gated SPECT imaging providing both perfusion and functional information and attenuation correction SPECT with improved perfusion information. The report concludes with a look into the future, where hybrid multimodality imaging systems may provide a comprehensive noninvasive evaluation with previously unmatched accuracy in a single imaging session.

Coronary Disease↗
PubMedDate not supplied

A multicenter evaluation of commercial attenuation compensation techniques in cardiac SPECT using phantom models.

BACKGROUND: Our goal was to evaluate the ability of current commercially available attenuation compensation (AC) techniques to correct for the effects of attenuation, scatter, and loss of resolution with depth, in a series of standardized phantom experiments. METHODS AND RESULTS: The following systems were evaluated: Hawkeye (GE Medical Systems), Profile (Siemens Medical Systems), Vantage Pro (ADAC Laboratories), TAC (SMV America), M-STEP (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor), TransAct (Elscint), Beacon (Marconi Systems), and PET Advance (GE Medical Systems). Studies were performed with the use of normal and ischemic myocardium in air and with technetium 99m or fluorine 18 in torso phantoms. There was considerable variation in the uniformity of short-axis slices and defect contrast for images acquired in air (no AC). AC improved the uniformity of activity throughout normal myocardium. A simulated hot liver resulted in severe artifacts and was only partially corrected by many systems. A high-quality attenuation map appears to be an important determinant of image quality. No system produced AC images of comparable quality to those obtained in the absence of scatter/attenuating media. CONCLUSIONS: There are significant differences in the ability of commercial AC systems to reduce artifacts due to attenuation and scatter. These differences are partly the result of non-AC factors (collimation, orbit, etc). In general, systems that generated high-quality attenuation maps yielded the best results.

Algorithms↗