Future perspectives: diagnostic possibilities with positron emission tomography.
While evaluation of regional myocardial metabolism for diagnostic purposes is currently confined to ischemic heart disease, the emergence and implementation of new tracer approaches is likely to expand the scope of clinical applications. Evaluation of neuronal control of the heart with tracers of adrenergic neuron densities and beta-adrenergic and cholinergic post-synaptic activity promises to be useful in patients with electrical instability and with cardio-myopathies as well as for verifying responses to therapeutic interventions. The possibility to measure regional oxidative metabolism should further prove useful for distinguishing between residual oxidative and anaerobic metabolism in ischemia and thus prove useful for more accurate characterization of the ischemic injury. The method should further become useful for examining cardiac efficiency and detecting the effect of therapeutic interventions. Lastly, techniques for measurements of protein synthesis are likely to become important for defining myocardial maturation, compensatory adjustments of the myocardium to increased pressure and volume loading as well as assessment of repair processes after injury to myocardium.
Schelbert
H R
HR
Department of Radiological Sciences, UCLA School of Medicine.
D003326:Coronary Circulation / Q000502:physiology; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D009206:Myocardium / Q000378:metabolism; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed / Q000639:trends*