[Noninvasive regional cerebral blood flow measurements by 99mTc-HMPAO using only three-head SPECT system]

A special bed and a new software program were developed for noninvasive regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) measurements by 99mTc hexamethylpropylene amine oxime (99mTc-HMPAO) using only three-head SPECT system, Siemens MULTI-SPECT3. A large field gamma camera with a minimum of 38 cm-diameter is required for simultaneous acquisition of time activity curves of brain and aortic arch in this noninvasive method. A special bed with short width was designed and inserted obliquely into the gantry of the SPECT system to acquire both time activity curves of brain and aortic arch with the use of diagonal length (51 cm) of a gamma camera with 31 x 41 cm width. Moreover a software program was developed for processing a series of the graphical analysis of time activity curves, Lassen's linearization correction of SPECT images, and drawing of a rCBF map. This noninvasive rCBF measurement using only MULTISPECT3 in a short period with high spatial resolution is quite useful for routine clinical studies.