Incremental value of myocardial wall motion and thickening to perfusion alone by gated SPECT myocardial perfusion imaging for viability assessment in patients with ischemic heart failure.

Assessment of myocardial wall motion and thickening in addition to conventional perfusion uptake in the segments with decreased perfusion enables better differentiation of hibernating myocardium from scar in patients with ischemic heart failure. Considering wide availability and high cost-effectiveness, regional myocardial function integrated with perfusion on gated SPECT MPI has great promise to become a clinical tool in the assessment of myocardial viability.