TITLE:
A New Approach to the Presentation of Myocardial SPECT Images—Radial Slices—Data Reduction without Loss of Information
AUTHORS:
Niloufar Darvish, Fatma Nadide Öçba, Hamed Hamid Muhammed, Dianna Bone
KEYWORDS:
Myocardial Perfusion SPECT; Cardiac Left Ventricle; Radial Slices; Left Ventricular Long Axis
JOURNAL NAME:
Engineering,
Vol.5 No.10B,
October
25,
2013
ABSTRACT: Objective: SPECT data from myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) are normally displayed
as a set of three slices orthogonal
to the left ventricular (LV) long axis. For data presentation, the images are
orientated about the LV long axis. Therefore, radial slices provide a suitable
alternative to standard orthogonal slices, with the advantage of requiring fewer slices to adequately represent the data. In this study, a semi-automatic method is developed for
displaying MPI SPECT data as a set of radial slices orientated about the LV
axis. The aim is to reduce the number of slices viewed without loss of
information and independently from the heart size. Method: Standard
short axis slices, orientated perpendicular
to the LV axis, are utilized.The skeleton of the segmented myocardium is
found and the true LV axis is determined
in each central long slice. The LV axis of the whole volume is determined by
aligning the axes of all slices. Result: Radial slices centered about this axis were generated by integration over
a sector equal to the resolution of the imaging system which was of the
order of 1.2 cm. Therefore, assuming a mean LV diameter of 8 cm, 20 slices were
sufficient to represent a non-gated study. Gated information could be
adequately displayed with 4 slices integrated over an angle of 45. Conclusion: A semi-automatic method for generating radial slices from SPECT MPI short
axis slices has been developed.