Three million myocardial infarctions are recorded annually in the United States, with an accompanying mortality rate of approximately 15%. The annual medical costs for screening of patients at risk for cardiac diseases using nuclear medicine imaging are estimated at greater than $500,000,000. A reduction in mortality is expected with improved diagnostic imaging procedures. However, it is difficult to develop and evaluate improved cardiac imaging protocols without a realistic beating heart phantom. The long term goal of this project is the development and marketing of a Dynamic Cardiac Ventricular Phantom (DCVP) system for use in clinical protocol evaluation, quality assurance and training. Phase I specific aims are to: (l) determine the average three-dimensional configuration of the beating myocardial ventricles, (2) incorporate this information into the preliminary design of a DCVP and design a test fixture system using computer aided design, (3) construct the test fixture system, and (4) evaluate and determine materials and system components suitable for use in the DCVP. The phantom will be designed primarily for nuclear cardiac imaging using single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and positron emission tomography (PET), but could be adapted for other cardiovascular imaging technologies such as ultrasound, magnetic resonance, and computed tomography.
We expect to manufacture a DCVP system from commercially available components and materials using customized processing equipment. The system will be easy to use and robust with a goal of Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) of 125 hours. The targeted sales price range is $7,500 to $15,000 per system. Projected first year sales are 250 systems with an expected total sales of 5,000 systems over the expected 10 year life of the product.
