REVIEW

Role of myocardial perfusion imaging for risk stratification in suspected or known coronary artery disease

N K Sabharwal, A Lahiri

Department of Cardiac Research, Northwick Park Hospital, Harrow, Middlesex, UK

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr Avijit Lahiri
Department of Cardiac Research, Northwick Park Hospital, Watford Road, Harrow, Middlesex HA1 3UJ, UK; nph{at}cardiac-research.org

Nuclear cardiology is an evolving specialty that has recently benefited from technological and radiopharmaceutical advances. As a result there has been an increase in the accuracy of myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) with gated single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) for assessing the diagnosis and prognosis of coronary artery disease. Moreover, ECG gated SPECT allows the simultaneous assessment of both myocardial perfusion and left ventricular function, which provides additional prognostic value. With increasing concern over early detection of coronary artery disease and its effective treatment, myocardial perfusion imaging is ideally placed to provide a full "one stop" functional assessment for any patient, irrespective of their exercise capacity. This applies not only to patients with chest pain but also to those with myocardial infarction, revascularisation, and heart failure, and those being assessed for non-cardiac surgery. The focus of this review is the use of myocardial perfusion imaging in risk stratification for coronary artery disease.

Keywords: myocardial perfusion imaging; SPECT; gated SPECT; coronary artery disease

Abbreviations: ASNC, American Society of Nuclear Cardiology; CHRISTMAS, carvedilol hibernation reversible ischaemia trial: marker of success; EMPIRE, economics of myocardial perfusion imaging in Europe; END, economics of noninvasive diagnosis; FDG, fluorodeoxyglucose; MPI, myocardial perfusion imaging; PET, positron emission tomography; SPECT, single photon emission computed tomography; SSS, summed stress score

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