Differences in polar-map patterns using the novel technologies for myocardial perfusion imaging

New technologies are available in MPI. Our aim was to evaluate their impact on the uniformity of normal myocardial uptake in the polar-map representation, over different count statistics, with and without the attenuation (AC) and scatter corrections (SC). A phantom study was performed using 5 Anger gamma cameras with filtered back projection or iterative reconstruction with resolution recovery (IRR), with or without SCAC; a D530c, with or without AC; and a D-SPECT. Count statistics ranged up to a quarter of the reference for the conventional gamma cameras and up to one half for the advanced scanners. Using polar maps, the segmental uptakes and their uncertainties, the ‘global uniformity’ of polar maps expressed as the coefficient of variation (COV) among the segmental uptakes and the anterior/inferior (ANT/INF) ratio were calculated. Both segmental uptakes and their uncertainties did not depend on the count statistics in the range studied. An increase in the segmental uptakes was found from IRR to IRR + SCAC (78.0% ± 13.5% vs 86.1% ± 9.4%; P < .0001). COV was lower for D-SPECT (10.1% ± 0.5%) and after SCAC for both conventional (9.9% ± 3.0%) and advanced systems (8.9% ± 1.7%). The ANT/INF ratio was above 1 for IRR (1.12 ± 0.07) and fell slightly below 1 for IRR + SCAC (0.97 ± 0.05). To compare data from the analysis of polar maps across different systems will require the adoption of specific normality databases, developed for each system and reconstruction method employed.