Background:
We aimed to compare normal limits and the detection of coronary artery disease (cad) with attenuation-corrected (ac) and non-attenuation-corrected (nc) myocardial perfusion single photon emission computed tomography (mps) by use of a recently improved automated quantification technique.
Methods and results:
We acquired 415 rest/stress technetium 99m mps studies on a vertex dual-detector camera with a gadolinium 153 line source (vantage pro). gender-specific nc, ac, and gender-combined ac normal limits were created from rest/stress images of 50 women and 50 men with a low likelihood of cad (< 5%) and a median body mass index (bmi) of 30 kg/m2 in each gender group. bmi-specific normal limits (< 30 kg/m2 and > or = 30 kg/m2) were also compared. total perfusion deficit and 17-segment summed scores in 174 patients were compared with angiography, and normalcy rates were established from 141 studies of low-likelihood patients. there were no differences between low-bmi and high-bmi normal limits for ac or nc studies. male and female normal limits differed in 12 of 17 segments for nc stress studies and in 3 of 17 segments for ac stress studies (p < .01). the sensitivity, specificity, and normalcy rates for stenoses with 70% narrowing or greater were 89%, 73%, and 91%, respectively, for nc studies and 87%, 80%, and 95%, respectively, for ac studies (p = not significant).
Conclusion:
Automated detection of cad by ac and nc mps demonstrated similar sensitivity, specificity, and normalcy rates. some gender differences were noted for ac normal limits.