Attenuation correction in myocardial perfusion imaging affects the assessment of infarct size in women with previous inferior infarct

Myocardial perfusion imaging is a well-established diagnostic tool in patients with known or suspected coronary artery disease. Numerous clinical trials have shown that attenuation correction (AC) in single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) improves the diagnostic accuracy of myocardial perfusion imaging over non-AC SPECT, differentiating between scar and attenuation artifacts. We have previously shown that attenuation artifacts produce an overestimation of the size of inferior infarcts in the male population. It is assumed that women are less affected by inferior attenuation artifacts than men.