Kinetic Models

Different tracers are applied for cardiac PET studies. For all of them kinetic models have been developed which allow to quantify cardiac function:

• Water (H2¹⁵O)
• Ammonia (¹³NH₃)
• Rubidium (⁸²Rb)
• Acetate (¹C-acetate)
• FDG (¹⁸F-Deoxygluose)

These models available for these tracers are described in the following sections.

Assumptions of the Cardiac Models

• The cardiac models usually apply a geometrical spillover with two correction terms: correction for signal from the left and right ventricle.
• For calculating the myocardial perfusion per g tissue a density of 1.04 g/ml for myocardial tissue is applied.
• Usually the PET signal from the left ventricle or the atrium is used as a measure of the tracer activity in blood. Depending on the tracer, corrections are applied to this blood curve for calculation the concentration of parent tracer with is required as the input curve of the models.

Exceptions to these rules are specified in the description of the individual models.