During the last 30 years nuclear cardiology has evolved from planar imaging to single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging, focusing on either perfusion or function of the myocardium. The introduction of gated SPECT provides the opportunity to reliably evaluate both perfusion and function. Like any new technology in medicine, a standard reference must be defined to ensure that the technology is applied correctly and uniformly. This book is intended for an audience that performs gated cardiac SPECT (eg, nuclear medicine physicians, cardiologists, radiologists, and nuclear technologists).
The book is laid out in a logical order with the first chapter acting as a general introduction to all nuclear cardiology. The next 3 chapters focus in detail on principles of functional imaging, acquisition of gated cardiac SPECT imaging, and the quantification of gated cardiac SPECT. These 3 chapters discuss gated cardiac SPECT in the most detail. Chapter 5 covers how to generate a cardiac SPECT report. Chapter 6 covers cardiac SPECT artifacts in detail, suggesting how gated SPECT may be used to identify these artifacts. Chapters 7 through 10 review the clinical value of cardiac gated SPECT and its cost effectiveness. Most of the material in these 4 chapters predated gated cardiac SPECT and therefore is more a general support of cardiac SPECT as a whole. Chapter 11 reviews the current state of gated blood pool SPECT. The final chapter covers other cardiac imaging modalities and how they compare with gated cardiac SPECT.
There were many high quality illustrations throughout the book. The images are all excellent examples supporting the authors' points in the text. Many previously published tables and graphs are reproduced in this text. Some of these figures were difficult to follow because of