SNM: F18 agent with 'motion frozen processing improves MPI

Combining a new F18 agent for PET myocardial perfusion imaging (BMS747158) with a molecular imaging technique that reduces blur caused by the motion of the heart and lungs could lead to unprecedented image quality when conducting myocardial perfusion imaging, according to a study presented at SNM’s 57th annual meeting.

“Both cardiac and respiratory motion degrade image quality by adding some unwanted blur,” said lead researcher Ludovic Le Meunier, PhD, staff scientist for Siemens Healthcare in Knoxville, Tenn., and based at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

This phase 2 trial in a subgroup of patients undergoing imaging with this new F18 PET agent was led by Daniel Berman, MD, director of cardiac imaging and nuclear cardiology at Cedars-Sinai. "Motion frozen" technology was developed in collaboration with Piotr Slomka, PhD, a research scientist at Cedars-Sinai and professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The researchers generated motion free perfusion images in six patients by combining amplitude based respiratory gating and the motion frozen processing technique which eliminates cardiac motion in static images.

“Dual gated perfusion imaging is feasible with a new F18 agent and shows significantly improved image resolution, contrast and contrast-to-noise when combined with motion frozen processing,” the investigators concluded.

The research was sponsored by Lantheus Medical Imaging.

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