The effect of fatty meal and water on interfering extracardiac activity in myocardial perfusion single-photon emission computed tomography

Abstract

Abstract Background There are several ways to diagnose coronary artery disease. Myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) is used for the diagnosis of coronary artery disease. One of the practical challenges in scan’s interpretation is interfering liver radiotracer uptake with appropriate cardiac visualization. For many years, different approaches were evaluated for conquering this problem. A relatively common method is using fat-containing meals before imaging. Fatty meals may cause some problems for some patients, especially elderly with digestive disorders, as well as an extra cost. We designed a study to compare the efficacy of water and fatty meal as a liver clearing agents to facilitate MPI results interpretation. Result Totally, 30 patients (consist of 30 stress phases and 30 rest phases), including 18 women and 12 men, were evaluated. The fatty meal was used before 32 scans and cold water in the other 28 scans. Finally, 40 scans had the suitable quality for reporting by nuclear physicians among 60 scans, which included 20 of 28 scans with water and 20 of 32 scans with a fatty meal. Conclusions This comparison showed that scans performed with the water group had similar results with the fatty meal group. Water is better than fatty meals because of its ease of use and lower cost. Therefore, the use of water can be a good alternative for routine use in NM centers.