Nuclear cardiology practice in Spain

In Spain, nuclear cardiology (NC) procedures represent the second most frequently performed studies in nuclear medicine (NM) centers.

The NC Working Group of the Spanish Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging invited NM departments across the country to answer an online questionnaire regarding 2014 activity.

Data on 40,161 patients from 42 centers were collected. The responding public centers served 39% of Spain´s population. The estimated NC activity for public hospitals was 2 studies/1,000 population/year. Of all the NC procedures, 69% were SPECT myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI), 17% equilibrium ventriculography, 12% ¹⁸F-FDG PET, 1.3% first pass ventriculography, and <1% innervation and amyloidosis imaging, respectively. The most frequent NC study was a ^99mTc tracer, exercise, 2-day MPI ECG-gated SPECT ordered by a cardiologist for diagnosis in an outpatient with 21 days of mean waiting time, the stress phase being supervised by both a cardiologist and a NM physician, with a NM physician writing a complete report.

A major challenge for NC in Spain is the gradual adoption of high-sensitivity, low-dose-dedicated cardiac SPECT cameras and the broadening of cardiac PET utilization with more cameras, and the availability of MPI tracers alongside the viability/inflammation setup.