A dynamic single photon emission computed tomography myocardial perfusion imaging protocol using a 4D spatiotemporal iterative reconstruction

Myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) has historically been and continues to be primarily performed using single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). However, dynamic MPI is the domain of cardiac positron emission tomography (PET), due to its intrinsically higher sensitivity and ring scanner geometry that allows stationary tomographic acquisition, which circumvent limitations typical SPECT scanners have. Spatiotemporal dynamic SPECT reconstruction algorithms that can be used for rotational SPECT systems have shown promise in overcoming these limitations. We have implemented a continuously rotating and acquiring rest/stress cardiac MPI dynamic SPECT protocol using a GE Infinia Hawkeye 4 SPECT/CT scanner for an ongoing clinical research project. Our initial results demonstrate qualitatively improved images and higher contrast scores in regions-of-interest (ROIs) using dynamic reconstructions of the projection data compared with 3D reconstructions of the same data.