Methods of background subtraction in myocardial perfusion imaging with thallium-201: a comparative study in the presence of an artefact.

ABSTRACT

For thallium imaging quantitation, a simulation study has been made using different methods of interpolation for background subtraction and studying their behaviour in the presence of an artefact. Two artefacts were used, one simulating hepatic or splenic uptake and the other diaphragmatic activity. The interpolative methods used were three classic techniques using standard masks. Their algorithms were modified so that they could also be used with arbitrarily shaped masks enclosing myocardium, and a comparison between the original and modified methods was made. Our results show an improvement when using the modified algorithms adapted to the arbitrarily outlined mask.