title: The role of PET quantification in cardiovascular imaging.
abstract: Positron Emission Tomography (PET) has several clinical and research applications in cardiovascular imaging. Myocardial perfusion imaging with PET allows accurate global and regional measurements of myocardial perfusion, myocardial blood flow and function at stress and rest in one exam. Simultaneous assessment of function and perfusion by PET with quantitative software is currently the routine practice. Combination of ejection fraction reserve with perfusion information may improve the identification of severe disease. The myocardial viability can be estimated by quantitative comparison of fluorodeoxyglucose (18FDG) and rest perfusion imaging. The myocardial blood flow and coronary flow reserve measurements are becoming routinely included in the clinical assessment due to enhanced dynamic imaging capabilities of the latest PET/CT scanners. Absolute flow measurements allow evaluation of the coronary microvascular dysfunction and provide additional prognostic and diagnostic information for coronary disease. Standard quantitative approaches to compute myocardial blood flow from kinetic PET data in automated and rapid fashion have been developed for13N-ammonia,15O-water and82Rb radiotracers. The agreement between software methods available for such analysis is excellent. Relative quantification of82Rb PET myocardial perfusion, based on comparisons to normal databases, demonstrates high performance for the detection of obstructive coronary disease. New tracers, such as18F-flurpiridaz may allow further improvements in the disease detection. Computerized analysis of perfusion at stress and rest reduces the variability of the assessment as compared to visual analysis. PET quantification can be enhanced by precise coregistration with CT angiography. In emerging clinical applications, the potential to identify vulnerable plaques by quantification of atherosclerotic plaque uptake of18FDG and18F-sodium fluoride tracers in carotids, aorta and coronary arteries has been demonstrated.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Imaging and Medicine, and Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA ; David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA.
authors.forename: Piotr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Slomka
authors.affiliation: Departments of Imaging and Medicine, and Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA.
authors.forename: Daniel S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Berman
authors.affiliation: Cardiovascular Imaging & Nuclear Cardiology Department, Instituto Nacional de Cardiología 'Ignacio Chávez', Mexico City, Mexico ; Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico.
authors.forename: Erick
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Alexanderson
authors.affiliation: Departments of Imaging and Medicine, and Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA ; David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA.
authors.forename: Guido
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Germano
keywords: cardiac PET; cardiac function; coronary flow reserve; hybrid PET/CT; myocardial perfusion; myocardial perfusion flow; myocardial viability; quantification; vascular imaging; vulnerable plaque