Nuclear cardiac imaging for the assessment of coronary artery disease in the elderly.
Stress single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and positron emission tomography (PET), the standard clinical methods for measuring myocardial perfusion, have been extensively validated for diagnostic and prognostic purposes in general populations. Published data in the elderly are limited. The available data suggest that in elderly patients, SPECT is as accurate for diagnostic purposes as in younger patients and that stress SPECT is considerably more accurate for prognostic purposes when compared with standard treadmill testing. Pharmacologic stress testing can be performed in conjunction with SPECT and PET, representing another advantage of these techniques because many elderly patients cannot exercise to a high enough workload to provoke ischemia during testing.
Miller
Todd D
TD
Division of Cardiovascular Diseases, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, USA. miller.todd@mayo.edu
DiCarli
Marcelo F
MF
D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005080:Exercise Test; D006801:Humans; D011379:Prognosis; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon
D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals