Introduction: This study aims to explore clinical values and possibilities of heart artifact elimination for patients who underwent SPECT myocardial perfusion scintigraphy. The main focus is on nuclear medicine technologists and their knowlodge of the new technologies developed in nuclear cardiology.
Methods: A qualitative descriptive study, review article has been performed for this research. Pubmed, Web of Science, and Embase were searched using a predefined electronic search strategy. Eighteen studies were deemed eligible for this systematic review.
Results: Based on the literature we found average age for the patients with coronary artery disease is 59.69 years for women and 57.39 yeras for men. False positive findings, blurred images, respiratory artifacts and sinogram and linogram interruption is very often, especially with patients with irregular breathing cycles, fear of the reasults, anxiety and patients with high BMI. Many studies performed on phantoms or on patients suggest image artifacts can be reduced or even eliminated with the new scanning methodology, software application upgrade, and with right nuclear medicine technologist education.
Conclusion: Coronary artery disease can affect men and women equally so the best diagnostic modality is essential for adequate treatment. Interruption of sinogram or linogram, truncation of the heart and blurred image is the first sign artifact of the image. Essential and the first step of every cardiac proccesing software is sinogram and linogram inspection combined with motion correction evaluation of the raw images. New technologies can improve image quality which can increase sensitivity and specificy of myocardial perfusion scintigraphy in all patients.
Key words: respiratory motion, motion correction, attenuation correction, SPECT, SPECT/CT, myocardial perfusion scintigraphy, coronary artery disease
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