Myocardial perfusion imaging & dedicated cardiac camera

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Cardiac Perfusion Imaging is one of most utilized tests in nuclear medicine and cardiology departments. At present, perfusion studies are preformed on conventional large field of view gamma cameras. Multiple radioisotopes are utilized with a multitude of imagining protocols. Some institutes are faithful to a one day acquisition protocol and others to a two day protocol. Most suggest a one day protocol for an average weight patient to alleviate a second trip for the patient, and a two day protocol for larger weight patients to be able to administer larger doses. Many institutions are dedicated to a single isotope well others are steadfast to dual isotopes. Many studies have been conducted that value a dual isotope acquisition with Thallium-201 for rest images and Te-99m Sestamibi or Tc-99m tetrofosmin for stress images. This protocol offers the benefit of a same day rest/stress imaging with the added inherent benefits of both Tl-201 and a Tc-99m Sestamibi or tetrofosmin acquisitions. This method would be significantly improved if one could perform simultaneous rest/siress SPl-X'T. However this has never been practical because conventional gamma cameras have poor energy resolution which leads to severe downscatter from Tc-99m into the Tl-201 window which renders the image inadequate for diagnosis. Motivated by the strong need for a new gamma camera capable of performing dual-isotope cardiac scans we propose to design a solid state small field of view cardiac camera with significantly better spectral performance such that it can dioscern the energy peaks of interest with minimal effects of downscattered radiation thus producing diagnostic quality dual isotope cardiac imaging. This ability to conduct simultaneous dual-isotope imaging has the advantage of perfect registration, decreased acquisition time, the attendant reduction of motion artifacts, reduction of effects due to the absorption of the 70-80 keV x-rays in the body, and overall improved diagnostic accuracy.