The Current Status of SPECT or SPECT/CT in South Korea

Abstract

The first step to nuclear medicine in Korea startedwith introduction of the gamma camera in 1969. Althoughplanar images with the gamma camera give important functionalinformation, they have the limitations that result from 2-dimensional images. Single-photon emission computed tomography(SPECT) due to its 3-dimensional image acquisition issuperior to earlier planar gamma imaging in image resolutionand diagnostic accuracy. As demand for a hybrid functional andanatomical imaging device has increased, integrated SPECT/CT systems have been used. In Korea, SPECT/CT was for thefirst time installed in 2003. SPECT/CT can eliminate manypossible pitfalls on SPECT-alone images, making better attenuationcorrection and thereby improving image quality.Therefore, SPECT/CT is clinically preferred in many hospitalsin various aspects.More recently, additional SPECT/CT imagestaken from the region with equivocal uptake on planar imageshave been helpful in making precise interpretation as part oftheir clinical workup in postoperative thyroid cancer patients.SPECT and SPECT/CT have various advantages, but its clinicalapplication has gradually decreased in recent few years.While some researchers investigated the myocardial blood flowwith cardiac PET using F-18 FDG or N-13 ammonia, myocardialperfusion SPECT is, at present, the radionuclide imagingstudy of choice for the risk stratification and guiding therapy inthe coronary artery disease patients in Korea. New diagnosticradiopharmaceuticals for AD have received increasingattention; nevertheless, brain SPECT will remain the most reliablemodality evaluating cerebral perfusion.