[Nuclear medicine studies of the heart]

Nuclear imaging methods provide noninvasive indexes of myocardial function, perfusion, and metabolism and are well accepted in clinical cardiology. Advances in prevention and treatment of cardiac disease have resulted in decreasing cardiovascular mortality in industrialized nations. The improvement in therapeutic options has increased the demand for diagnostic tests that might guide clinical decision making. Information beyond the pure anatomic characterization of coronary stenoses is required. Nuclear imaging can be used for early detection and monitoring of the severity and extent of disease. The prognostic potential of such functional testing is being increasingly appreciated and used to guide therapy, thereby resulting in improvement of the quality and cost-effectiveness of the workup of patients with cardiovascular disease. Extensive clinical validation has resulted in growing acceptance of these techniques. Furthermore, ongoing improvement of imaging techniques and development of new radiopharmaceuticals will pave the way for disease-specific, molecular-targeted cardiac imaging in the future.