RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Positron emission tomography and molecular imaging
JF Heart
JO Heart
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and British Cardiovascular Society
SP 360
OP 367
DO 10.1136/hrt.2007.118992
VO 94
IS 3
A1 J Knuuti
A1 F M Bengel
YR 2008
UL http://heart.bmj.com/content/94/3/360.abstract
AB The use of positron emission tomography (PET) in cardiology is growing rapidly. Technical features make PET a strong technology for the non-invasive evaluation of cardiac physiology. It is currently considered the most reliable tool for the identification of myocardial viability and also allows accurate assessment of myocardial perfusion and detection of coronary artery disease (CAD). The unique feature of PET is that myocardial perfusion can be measured in absolute terms, improving sensitivity in the detection of multivessel of disease and also allowing evaluation of very early changes in coronary vasoreactivity and the progression or regression of CAD. Use of the newest generation of PET systems with integrated multislice computed tomography (CT) is becoming a standard technique for cardiac imaging. Since the PET and CT techniques ideally complement each other the combination is particularly attractive for the non-invasive assessment of CAD but also has other functions. Finally, there are also promising future applications that involve molecular imaging of cardiac targets, which may further enhance the clinical utility of PET and hybrid imaging.