Circumferential profiles for region-based analysis of dynamic SPECT data

Kinetic parameters (washin, washout) of dynamic SPECT teboroxime data sets may provide a more sensitive measure of coronary artery disease than conventional (T1, MIBI) static myocardial perfusion studies. A time-consuming and subjective step of the data analysis is drawing regions of interest to delineate blood pool and myocardial tissue regions. The time-activity curves for the regions are then used to estimate local kinetic parameters. In this work, the appropriate time-activity curves are found automatically, in a manner similar to that used for calculating circumferential profiles in conventional static cardiac studies. The drawbacks to applying standard static circumferential profile methods are the high noise level and high liver uptake common in dynamic studies. Searching along each ray for maxima to locate the myocardium does not always provide useful information. Here, the authors propose an iterative scheme in which constraints are imposed on the radii searched. The constraints are based on the shape of the time-activity curve of the circumferential profile members and on an assumption that the short axis slices are approximately circular. The constraints eliminate outliers and help to reduce the effects of the noise and the liver activity. Kinetic parameter estimates from the automatically generated regions were comparable to estimates from manually selected regions in canine dynamic teboroxime studies.