Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography as a diagnostic method in ischemic heart disease - basic technical aspects.

Ischemic Heart Disease (IHD) poses an important diagnostic problem. Clinical picture of the disease is often atypical. SPECT is one of the main diagnostic tools in ischemic heart disease. Radioisotope study evaluates distribution of a radiopharmaceutical agent in the heart through a series of scintigraphic images taken by an external gamma camera. This article discusses the technical aspects of cardiac SPECT imaging, starting with a detection system, through image reconstruction, and ending with image filtering.