Thallium-201 myocardial tomography with a rotating slant-hole collimator and a large number of projections.

Tomographic imaging of the myocardium was performed using a gamma camera and a 30-degree rotating slant-hole collimator to register 64 projections from a restricted-view angle. Section images were reconstructed with a two-dimensional filtered backprojection technique. Performance in terms of resolution, effects of misalignment, and three-dimensional activity distribution was evaluated in phantom studies. In a limited clinical study, ten consecutive patients were imaged both with single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and the method described. In the new method, the camera was orientated in the 30 degrees left anterior oblique position with 15 degrees cranial tilt. Due to the short distance from the myocardium to the camera, resolution within reconstructed section images was high, the noise level was comparatively low, and the mean activity level in the posterior wall was significantly higher (p less than 0.005) than in SPECT.