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Model Features
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- 15O-Water
- 13N-Ammonia
- 11C-Acetate
- 82-Rubidium
- 18F-FDG
- Double spillover correction in septal regions
- Metabolite corrections for ammonia and acetate
- Factor analysis for water
- Full modeling environment
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Selected Database Functionality
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- Generation of normal databases
- Rest, stress and coronary perfusion reserve
- Comparison of single outcome with DB
- Z-score normalized representation
- Masking of outliers
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| Cardiac Modeling Tool (PCARD) |
- Automatic short axis orientation procedure.
- Automatic myocardium outlining approach.
- Standard myocardial segmentations (17 or 20 sectors).
- Quantification of segmental TACs by dedicated kinetic models.
- Tabular and polar reporting of results.
- Data and results investigation by fusion options.
- Side-by-side rest / stress processing.
- Build-up of normal databases and comparison with individual outcome.
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 Brochure | User Guide |
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Modeling Tailored for Cardiac Data.
Non-invasive assessment of myocardial function is an important domain of PET. Traditionally, cardiac PET images have been visually interpreted, using uptake as a measure of function. Hereby, only a fraction of the full PET information is taken into account. In contrast, the application of tracer kinetic modeling to dynamically measured uptake data is able to extract objective measures of perfusion and/or metabolism, depending on the tracer. While such cardiac quantification has only been accessible to a few research sites with dedicated in-house software, our new cardiac tool opens the field for broader application of the state-of-the-art technology.
Cardiac modeling is based on the same principles as applied in other organs, but there are two additional difficulties to master. One is the high degree of spillover in the myocardial signal, originating from blood in the nearby ventricles. The other is, that cardiac function is to be reported in a set of standard segments. Our cardiac quantification tool solves these issues by providing specialized kinetic models, and by supporting the 17 and 20 sector segmentations according to the guidelines of the American Heart Association (AHA).
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Streamlined Processing for Cardiac Quantification.
Many processing steps have been automated in the revised cardiac tool, so that the analysis can be done quickly and reproducibly. The data are first reoriented into the standard short axis position. Next, the myocardium centerline is detected and a 3D-model of the left ventricle formed. The selected cardiac segmentation is then applied to it, resulting in segmental time-activity curves. These are fitted using a suitable kinetic model, and the results summarized in different types of reports. The tool allows the parallel processing of rest/stress studies, so that intermediate results can be exchanged and used as a starting point should an automatic procedure fail.
If sufficient anatomical information is present in the data, the whole processing runs fully automatically. The user has flexible analysis tools available to verify that the automatic procedures worked properly, and he can easily intervene if needed. Manual data processing is still possible with the most difficult cases, so that meaningful results can always be achieved.
An additional benefit of the cardiac modeling tool is its ability to build databases from results obtained with normal volunteers. Once a database is available, the deviation of patient studies from the normal rest, stress or reserve pattern can be quantified in terms of z-score values. |
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Products 
Cardiac Modeling]
