Background: Standard procedure involves acquiring separate computed tomography (CT) scans during rest and stress for attenuation correction of single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) which results in increased radiation dose for patients. The reduction of one of the CT scans can reduce radiation exposure. We investigated whether a single post-stress CT scan can be used for attenuation correction of both stress and rest MPI SPECT without affecting clinical interpretation.
Methods: A total of 106 consecutive patients underwent diagnostic MPI SPECT-CT with 99mTc-tetrofosmin using CT-derived attenuation data at stress and rest. We created 106 post-rest perfusion pairs of polar maps reconstructed twice with rest and post-stress CT attenuation data. The similarity between these pairs of maps was assessed in three ways: (1) mathematically, (2) subjectively by 6 independent experienced nuclear medicine physicians, and (3) by categorical analysis of the summed perfusion score (SPS) to evaluate potential changes in clinical interpretation.
Results: The Bland-Altman analysis showed no differences in SPS between the pair of maps. The t-test showed no statistically significant differences between the scores of individual myocardial segments. Physicians rated the maps' similarity on average of 9.3 (±0.8) on a scale of 1 to 10, and a function was proposed to describe physicians' predicted responses based on compared pairs of maps. A categorical analysis revealed that approximately 30% of patients changed their SPS category when using 1CT instead of 2CT and that a small subset exhibited shifts large enough to potentially influence interpretation.
Conclusions: Using a single post-stress CT for attenuation correction of both stress and rest MPI SPECT appears feasible in most cases, but careful review is recommended. The method should be applied with caution, particularly when registration quality is suboptimal or when ischemia is clinically suspected.
Background: Coronary microvascular dysfunction is implicated in ∼two-thirds of ischaemia with no obstructive coronary artery disease (INOCA) cases and is significant due to its association with a higher risk of major adverse cardiac events (MACE). While invasive techniques are the gold standard for diagnosing coronary microvascular dysfunction (CMD), positron emission tomography (PET) offers a noninvasive approach to quantifying myocardial blood flow (MBF) and detecting CMD. This study aimed to quantify myocardial flow reserve (MFR) using PET in INOCA patients to identify CMD and to correlate it with thrombolysis in myocardial infarction (TIMI) and TIMI myocardial perfusion grade (TMPG) angiographic flow grades.
Methods: Thirty INOCA patients with angiographic evidence of non-obstructive coronaries and slow flow were prospectively enrolled and underwent dynamic rest and stress cardiac 13N-NH3 PET with MBF and MFR quantification. Patients with MFR values below 2.3 were classified as having CMD. Angiographic flow grades (TIMI and TMPG) were correlated with MFR and MBF.
Results: The mean global stress MBF and MFR for the study cohort were 2.54 ± 0.72 mL/minute/gm and 2.91 ± 0.81, respectively. No significant correlation was found between MFR and TIMI (r = -0.140, P = 0.108) or MFR and TMPG (r = -0.06, P = 0.446). Among the participants, 8 (27 %) had reduced global MFR less than 2.3 (mean: 1.80 ± 0.36), indicating CMD. The remaining 22 patients (73 %) had normal MFR values. Within the CMD group, 3 patients had functional CMD with elevated resting MBF, while 5 had classic CMD with blunted hyperaemic response to vasodilator stress.
Conclusions: PET is an excellent noninvasive modality for diagnosing CMD. Coronary slow flow in angiographically normal arteries does not correlate with 13N-NH3 PET MFR values and is not a reliable marker for identifying CMD as indicated by the study's findings.

