News / ASNC Recommends Cardiac PET

ASNC Recommends Cardiac PET

The American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC) has shared its official answer to a decades-long debate over which cardiac nuclear imaging modality is the best for evaluating heart patients. In a new position statement, the group officially recommended that cardiac positron emission tomography (PET), if available, be used to evaluate all patients with suspected coronary artery disease (CAD) who are candidates for myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI). The statement was published in full in the Journal of Nuclear Cardiology.

We are very happy to announce that Stern is now able to provide this cutting-edge technology to our patients. We have a PET scanner at our Germantown campus and expect to have one at our other locations soon.

Cardiac positron emission tomography (PET) is a nuclear imaging modality that can show heart cell metabolism that reveals areas of ischemia or infarct where this low or no blood flow due to coronary artery disease and myocardial infarction. PET can help determine in if areas of the heart effected by a heart attack can be reversed through revascularization. PET can also offer additional information on the patient's condition with myocardial flow reserve (MFR) information. Cardiac PET uses a rubidium (Rb-82) radiotracer injection, which only has a half life of 75 seconds, which greatly speeds scan times compared to traditional cardiac SPECT imaging.