Static versus dynamic teboroxime myocardial perfusion SPECT in canines

Tc-99m-teboroxime is a perfusion tracer with high myocardial extraction, fast washin and washout kinetics, and excellent imaging properties. The fast kinetics pose some problems for static imaging, but they also allow for back-to-back stress/rest studies to be performed very quickly. Furthermore, such fast kinetics are ideally suited for dynamic imaging. We have compared static versus dynamic teboroxime SPECT imaging in canines using microsphere-derived flow values as the gold standard. Dynamic data were acquired in eight dogs using a fast serial scanning protocol. The data were analyzed in two ways: (1) summing timeframes to create a single, static dataset with consistent projections; and (2) 4D reconstruction and kinetic parameter estimation for a two compartment model. In both cases imaging data (voxel intensity or washin rate parameter) were correlated with flow values measured by microspheres. The static summing procedure that produced the best correlation with flow consisted of summing the projection data acquired from 60 to 180 seconds post-injection. The washin rate parameter was found to provide better correlation with flow than static image intensity in six of seven animals. When the data were pooled over all studies, washin provided significantly better correlation with flow than static imaging (p<0.001). We conclude that dynamic imaging of teboroxime with compartmental modeling provides a better measure of flow than can be obtained from static imaging techniques.