Abstract
Although radionuclide procedures for the non-invasive study of ventricular function and relative myocardial perfusion were developed only recently, their value for the diagnosis and management of cardiovascular disease has been readily recognized by many clinicians. These procedures are now part of the routine diagnosic work-up of cardiac patients in many institutions throughout the world. However, these conventional techniques are limited in two ways: The radiopharmaceuticals employed with these procedures are either largely unphysiologic or there is a limited understanding of their kinetics and mechanisms of uptake.
More importantly, traditional Anger type scintillation cameras compress or superimpose three-dimensional information into two-dimensional images and thus limit detailed perception of internal structures. Further, sensitivity and resolution of scintillation cameras decreases from the surface to the internal portions of the body. Lastly, gamma photons are attenuated to varying degrees by body tissues prior to reaching the scintillation camera. Because of superimposition of three-dimensional information, depthdependent resolution and varying degrees of photon attenuation, scintigrams obtained with conventional scintillation cameras provide only a qualitative indication of the distribution of radioindicators in organs. These images do not provide a capability for determining the local tissue concentration of a given radioindicator. Regarding conventional cardiovascular procedures, quantification of myocardial blood flow or ventricular volumes from count measurements alone is very limited.
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Schelbert, H.R., Phelps, M.E. Physiologic tomography: A new means for the non-invasive measurement of myocardial metabolism, blood flow and function. Eur J Nucl Med 5, 209–215 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00271901
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00271901