Quantitative Assessment of Wall Motion in Gated SPECT Using the Centerline Method

Evaluation of myocardial wall motion is an important assessment of heart function. Specific analysis programs in nuclear medicine, such as QGS (quantitative gated SPECT) analysis and p-FAST (perfusion-function assessment for myocardial SPECT), have been used to assess wall motion, but they have not evaluated it through a comparison of normal data. The centerline method, using left ventriculograms (LVG), evaluates regional wall motion quantitatively through a comparison of normal data and patient data, and abnormality of wall motion is expressed in units of standard deviation (SD) s from the mean motion in a reference population. However, angiography is an invasive inspection, wall motion analysis is usually in one direction, and the conventional centerline method is not a three-dimensional analysis. The purpose of this study was to apply the centerline method to nuclear medicine and examine the wall motion of subjects through a comparison of normal wall motion non-invasively and in a three-dimensional way. We arranged the analysis program using C language and inspected it using a dynamic cardiac phantom and computed tomography (CT) scanner. We made a polar map that indicated the mean and SD of normal wall motion. Our proposed method was able to assess the wall motion of subjects quantitatively through a comparison of normal wall motion in nuclear medicine