Nuclear medicine firm UltraSPECT is touting a study that found that the company's imaging protocols meet American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC) low-dose guidelines.
The study from St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital in New York City included 257 patients using a full-dose protocol and 205 patients using a half-dose protocol. The half-dose protocol was achieved using the Wide Beam Reconstruction (WBR) algorithm-based Xpress.Cardiac software from UltraSPECT.
The researchers found that 77% of studies performed with the half-dose protocol were below a radiation dose of 9 mSv, whereas no studies with the full-dose protocol were less than 9 mSv.
ASNC low-dose guidelines, set to take effect on January 1, 2014, recommend that total radiation exposure for patients undergoing SPECT/PET myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) should be limited to an average of 9 mSv or less in 50% of studies.
UltraSPECT plans to showcase the protocols at ASNC's annual meeting, which is taking place September 26 to 29 in Chicago.
