Applications of PET/CT in Cardiology

When compared to conventional SPECT imaging, PET/CT using Rubidium- 82 coupled with a 64-slice CT scanner is a faster, easier, and more accurate method to measure myocardial blood flow. Cardiac imaging with a 64 slice PET/CT has several advantages.

		Faster acquisition times and the use of CT for attenuation correction eliminates frequently seen artifacts on conventional SPECT imaging in patients with a large body habitus.
		The entire length of the study for both stress and rest imaging is less than 30 minutes.
		Myocardial blood flow and reserve measurements allow the detection of small vessel or balanced three vessels disease. These patients will have normal SPECT studies.
		The 64-slice CT allows for coronary artery calcium scoring which gives additional information about the severity of the coronary artery disease and can be an important factor for deciding the best treatment for the patient.

The combined PET multi-detector CT system allows for direct comparison of a PET study with CT coronary angiography performed in the same sitting. In combination, these two studies have been shown to have a negative predictive value of nearly 100% and can help avoid unnecessary catheterizations in normal patients.