Can cardiac PET/CT ‘revolutionize’ heart care?

PET/CT is poised to become a key tool for imaging the coronary arteries – a clinical imaging exam that can reveal early warning signs of fatal conditions when patients present with symptoms of chest pain, experts say. The “hybrid” scan – which combines molecular PET and anatomical CT images – may have its highest potential in visualizing early signs of so-called “perfusion deficits” (regions of obstructed blood flow), said Marcelo Di Carli, MD, a professor of radiology and medicine at Harvard Medical School, in a recent interview with AuntMinnie.com. “[PET/CT] helps us differentiate a patient who has chest pain from obstructions of the coronary artery from another patient who may also have chest pain, but not coming from obstructed coronary arteries,” he said. Di Carli discussed how PET/CT could revolutionize cardiac care. Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the leading cause of mortality in the U.S. and accounts for approximately 610,000 deaths annually, with this number increasing, according to estimates. Obesity, physical inactivity, unhealthy eating, and smoking tobacco are risk factors. In a recent editorial published in the Journal of Nuclear Cardiology, Di Carli, who is the editor in chief of the journal, described a study representing the largest validation to date of PET myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) for detecting high-risk CAD. In a cohort of 1,282 patients who underwent invasive coronary angiography for suspected disease, noninvasive P...
Source: AuntMinnie.com Headlines - Category: Radiology Authors: Tags: Clinical News Subspecialties Molecular Imaging Cardiovascular Radiology Source Type: news