Patent ID: 7409240
Filing Date: 2008-08-05
Classification: A61B,G01T

Abstract:
1. A method for detecting myocardial infarction in a patient having a bloodstream and a heart having a left ventricle and a right ventricle, comprising: injecting the bloodstream with a bolus comprising a radioactive tracer that passes through the heart, wherein said bolus maintains a high concentration of said radioactive tracer relative to the bloodstream prior to said bolus injection as said bolus passes in the bloodstream through the right ventricle and the left ventricle of the heart such that said bolus passes through the heart in the bloodstream in a contiguous form; obtaining planar coordinates of scintillation events as right images of the right ventricle during a first pass of said bolus in the bloodstream through the right ventricle wherein said bolus maintains a substantially uniform distribution of said high concentration of radioactive tracer in the blood stream in the right ventricle; obtaining planar coordinates of scintillation events as left images of the left ventricle during a first pass of said bolus in the bloodstream through the left ventricle, wherein said bolus maintains a substantially uniform distribution of said high concentration of radioactive tracer in the blood stream of the left ventricle; producing a right representative cycle of the right ventricle based on said right images and a left representative cycle of the left ventricle based on said left images; generating a left ventricular phase map and a right ventricular phase map based on said left representative cycle and said right representative cycle respectively; and assessing damage to the heart based on phase shift changes in said left ventricular phase map or said right ventricular phase map.