Three-dimensional stereotactic surface projection of brain perfusion SPECT improves diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease

• Published in: Annals of nuclear medicine Vol. 17; no. 8; pp. 641 - 648
• Main Authors: Honda, Norinari, Machida, Kikuo, Matsumoto, Tohru, Matsuda, Hiroshi, Imabayashi, Etsuko, Hashimoto, Jun, Hosono, Makoto, Inoue, Yusuke, Koizum, Kiyoshi, Kosuda, Shigeru, Momose, Toshimitsu, Mori, Yutaka, Oshima, Motoo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Japan Springer Nature B.V 01.12.2003
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Alzheimer Disease - diagnostic imaging; Alzheimer's disease; Automation; Brain; Brain - blood supply; Brain - diagnostic imaging; Diagnosis; Female; Humans; Image Enhancement - methods; Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted - methods; Imaging, Three-Dimensional - methods; Inspection; Male; Medical diagnosis; Middle Aged; Neurodegenerative diseases; Nuclear medicine; Performance enhancement; Perfusion; Physicians; Reproducibility of Results; Sensitivity and Specificity; Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon - methods
• ISSN: 0914-7187; 1864-6433
• DOI: 10.1007/bf02984969

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is diagnosed by either inspection of the brain perfusion SPECT, or three-dimensional stereotactic surface display (3D-SSP). The purpose was to compare diagnostic performances of these methods. Sixteen nuclear medicine physicians independently interpreted 99mTc-ECD SPECT in one session and SPECT with 3D-SSP in another session without clinical information for 50 studies of AD patients and 40 studies of healthy volunteers. Probabilities of AD were reported according to a subjective scale from 0% (normal) to 100% (definite AD). Receiver operating characteristics curves were generated to calculate areas under the ROC curves (Az's) for the inspection as well as for an automated diagnosis based on a mean Z value in the bilateral posterior cingulate gyri in a 3D-SSP template. Mean Az for visual interpretation of SPECT alone (0.679 +/- 0.058) was significantly smaller than that for visual interpretation of both SPECT and 3D-SSP (0.778 +/- 0.060). Az for the automated diagnosis (0.883 +/- 0.037) was significantly greater than that for both modes of visual interpretation. 3D-SSP enhanced performance of the nuclear medicine physicians inspecting SPECT. Performance of the automated diagnosis exceeded that of the physicians inspecting SPECT with and without 3D-SSP.