Monte Carlo simulations to assess differentiation between defects in cardiac SPECT

Differentiating between various types of lesions in nuclear cardiology is a challenge. This work assesses the level of differentiation achievable between various low contrast lesions, as encountered in nuclear cardiology. The parameters investigated are defect extend, defect thickness and perfusion reduction of the defect. The images have been obtained through Monte Carlo Simulations with the program SIMIND. Results show that acceptable size resolution is obtained for defects with an extend over 25×25mm. When thickness and perfusion reduction are both unknown, the imaging results are confounding. In this work, thickness and perfusion reduction cannot be differentiated. If one of the variables is known (thickness or perfusion reduction), imaging results can differentiate between the other unknown variable.