One of the most pressing needs in clinical cardiology today is a convenient, reliable,and low-cost front-line screening procedure for risk stratification of patients presenting with angina pectoris and/or other cardiac symptoms. Exercise first-pass radionuclide angiography (FPRNA) provides valuable prognostic information and serves as an ideal candidate for such a widespread screening test. Unfortunately, treadmill exercise, the highly preferred method of achieving peak stress, results in significant patient motion during image acquisition. Current methods for correction of this motion are complicated. present potential safety issues, and have technical limitations. These drawbacks combined with the high cost of current scintillation cameras have prevented broad application of this technique. which could be of very high clinical significance. In this application, we propose to develop a motion corrected treadmill nuclear angiography system through use of state-of-the-art motion tracking technology developed in the computer animation industry. The dedicated system, including treadmill mounting, will consist of the low-cost Multiwire Gamma Camera integrated with a sensor worn by the patient and a fixed position transmitter. Phantom studies evaluating the accuracy of motion correction will be conducted. Following these simulations, a prototype system will be constructed and evaluated in 10 human volunteer subjects at the Cornell Medical Center in order to establish the feasibility of such a system.
A motion correction treadmill angiography system as described could effectively function as a front-line screening test for risk stratification of incoming patients. Considering the high incidence of heart disease in addition to the multitude of symptomatic but disease-free patients, such studies would be performed in a large volume of patients. There would be a high demand for the proposed system, which could be provided at relatively low cost, at large hospitals as well as smaller clinics.
