To study the characteristics of common myocardial tomography artifacts so as to increase the diagnosis accuracy

132 patients with myocardial perfusion were reviewed. With careful recognition of artifacts

the patients were re-diagnosed and compared with previous results. It was found that attenuation artifacts and motion artifacts were found frequently in thallium SPECT images. Artifacts caused by thoracic wall were frequent in female and showed a fixed defect in anterior or lateral wall; attenuation artifacts caused by left hemidiaphragm were always found in male and showed that the inferior wall became thinner gradually from apex to bottom in vertical long axis slices. The coexistence of defects and hot areas was the characteristics of motion artifacts. Artifacts caused by non-target organs

liver and/or gastrointestinal tracts

were frequently seen in 99mTc- sestamibi SPECT image. By recognizing the artifacts

misdiagnosis rate decreased significantly from 13.6% to 6.8%. Our studies show that all kinds of artifacts have their prevalence rate and imaging feature

the artifacts could be eliminated effectively by careful analysis and some correction measures.