[Examination of myocardial perfusion with positron emission tomography: a clinically useful and valid method?]

Positron emission tomography (PET) of the heart has gained widespread scientific and clinical acceptance with regard to 2 indications: 1. the detection of perfusion abnormalities by qualitative and semiquantitative analyses of perfusion images at rest and during physical or pharmacological stress using well validated perfusion tracers such as N-13 ammonia, Rb-82 rubidiumchloride, or O-15 labeled water, 2. Viability imaging of myocardial regions with reduced contractility by combining perfusion measurements with substrate metabolism as assessed from F-18 deoxyglucose utilization. This overview summarizes the use of PET as a perfusion imaging method. With a sensitivity > 90% in combination with a high specificity, PET is today the best available nuclear imaging technique for the diagnosis of coronary artery disease (CAD). The short half-life of the perfusion tracers in combination with highly sophisticated hard- and software enables rapid PET studies with high patient throughput. The high diagnostic accuracy and the methological advantages as compared to conventional scintigraphy allows to use PET perfusion imaging for detection of subtle changes of the perfusion reserve for detection of CAD in high risk but asymptomatic patients as well as in patients with proven CAD undergoing various treatment forms such as risk factor reduction or coronary revascularization. In patients following orthotopic heart transplantation, evolving transplant vasculopathy can be detected at an early stage. Quantitative PET imaging at rest allows for detection of myocardial viability since cellular survival is based on maintenance of a minimal perfusion and structural changes correlate to the degree of perfusion reduction. Furthermore, quantitative assessment of the myocardial perfusion reserve detects the magnitude and competence of collaterals in regions with occluded epicardial arteries and thus, imaging of several coronary distribution territories in one noninvasive study. The cost of PET in combination with the cost of a cyclotron facility together with the demanding methological problems have limited the availability of PET to a few but sophisticated centers. Therefore, quantitative PET investigations have been performed predominantly for scientific purposes and the cost-effectiveness of PET in the everyday clinical setting is not yet finally proven. However, the unique possibilities of PET to study noninvasively and quantitatively myocardial perfusion and metabolism as well as cardiac innervation and pharmacokinetics of cardiac drugs have established cardiac PET as a scientific tool of highest quality for the future.