Correlation of automatic processing method in myocardial perfusion SPET with the interactive method.

Different techniques have been introduced for full automatic processing of myocardial perfusion imaging with single-photon emission tomography. We tried to evaluate the accuracy of one of these commercial automatic processing methods. The study was performed in 300 patients during 18 months. Two post-stress acquisitions in supine and prone positions and one acquisition at rest , were performed for every patient. All images were processed both automatically and interactively and the results were compared to each other. The automatic method matched the interactive method in 95.22% for left ventricle isolation, in 99.54% for excluding extra-cardiac activity and in 98.22% for reorientation of a single projected data. The automatic method was also successful in complete processing of 81.33% sets of stress (supine)-rest and 79.77% sets of stress (prone)-rest images as compared to the interactive method. In conclusion, the fully automated processing method matches the interactive method in complete processing of myocardial perfusion imaging with single-photon emission tomography more than 79.77% and is of equal accuracy to the interactive method in supine and prone-positioned acquisitions.