Usefulness of abdominal belt for restricting respiratory cardiac motion and improving image quality in myocardial perfusion PET

The current study evaluated the usefulness of a belt technique for restricting respiratory motion of the heart and for improving image quality of 13n-ammonia myocardial pet/ct, and it assessed the tolerability of the belt technique in the clinical setting. myocardial 13n-ammonia pet/ct scanning was performed in 8 volunteers on discovery pet/ct 690 with an optical respiratory motion tracking system. emission scans were performed with and without an abdominal belt. the amplitude of left ventricular (lv) respiratory motion was measured on respiratory-gated pet images. the degree of erroneous decreases in regional myocardial uptake was visually assessed on ungated pet images using a 5-point scale (0 = normal, 1/2/3 = mild/moderate/severe decrease, 4 = defect). the tolerability of the belt technique was evaluated in 53 patients. all subjects tolerated the belt procedure. the amplitude of the lv respiratory motion decreased significantly with the belt (8.1 ± 7.1 vs 12.1 ± 6.1 mm, p = .0078). the belt significantly improved the image quality scores in the anterior (0.29 ± 0.81 vs 0.71 ± 1.04, p = .015) and inferior (0.33 ± 0.92 vs 1.04 ± 1.04, p < .0001) wall. no adverse events related to the belt technique were observed. the belt technique restricts lv respiratory motion and improves the image quality of myocardial pet/ct, and it is well tolerated by patients.