Image Fusion and Coregistration: State of the (He)art

Abstract

The last decade saw a tremendous increase in systems capable of hybrid imaging, namely PET/CT systems and to a lesser extent SPECT/CT. Although primarily designed and optimized for oncology imaging those devices are well suited for applications in cardiac imaging. The combination of functional and morphological imaging provides valuable information—however, the cost efficiency of integrated over sequential imaging is not yet defined. Furthermore, we see the advent of hybrid PET/MR systems with either near simultaneous or a fully integrated design. Both PET/CT and PET/MR systems provide much more data with higher spatial resolution than what conventional nuclear cardiology was used to see in the past. In the mono-modal world, over a time period of almost two decades, a variety of software packages emerged which facilitate the quantitative analysis of defect size and extent as well as functional, global parameters such as left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction and volumes. In contrast to these vast possibilities, the tools for multi modal and multi parameter cardiac imaging are still relatively sparse. Thus, this chapter describes the strategies and capabilities of available applications, tries to shed a light on the reason why this is still a niche market and describes potential solutions.