title: Combined anatomic and perfusion imaging of the heart.
abstract: Recent technological advances provided clinicians with multiple options for diagnosing and prognosticating patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). Myocardial perfusion imaging with single photon emission computed tomography and positron emission tomography is a powerful tool for assessing physiologically significant coronary atherosclerosis, but is unable to detect subclinical atherosclerosis. Coronary computed tomographic angiography permits rapid noninvasive assessment of the coronaries and demonstrates an impressive negative predictive value in the clinical literature. Nevertheless, the positive predictive value of computed tomographic angiography for clinically significant CAD is suboptimal. The combination of both of these techniques provides an opportunity to the clinician to assess for subclinical atherosclerosis (with important implications for therapy in low-intermediate risk patients) and functionally significant lesions in patients with extensive CAD. However, the application of this technology has to be implemented on a case-by-case basis to avoid unnecessary radiation exposure and cost.
authors.affiliation: Division of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, ASB L1-037C, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Bilal
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ali
authors.forename: Edward
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Hsiao
authors.forename: Marcelo F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Di Carli
mesh_terms: D017023:Coronary Angiography / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D003331:Coronary Vessels / Q000473:pathology; D006321:Heart / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D006801:Humans; D055414:Myocardial Perfusion Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000295:instrumentation; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon / Q000295:instrumentation; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000295:instrumentation*