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ASNC's New Position Statement Identifies 5 Situations Where PET is Recommended

Two new documents published jointly by ASNC and the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging assess the value and quality of myocardial perfusion PET imaging. 
Nuclear cardiology and medicine specialists, technologists and other healthcare providers can use the complementary ASNC Imaging Guidelines/SNMMI Procedure Standard for Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Nuclear Cardiology Procedures and Position Statement on the Clinical Indications for Myocardial Perfusion PET to guide appropriate care. Guideline updates include assessment and reporting of PET absolute hyperemic blood flow and flow reserve and expanded applications of PET glucose metabolism for cardiac device infections and sarcoidosis.

Importantly, the position statement indicates PET as a preferred test for patients who meet criteria for stress imaging but are unable to complete a diagnostic-level of exercise and identifies the following five clinical situations where cardiac PET is recommended:
  • Poor quality, equivocal, or inconclusive prior stress-imaging study
  • Patients with certain body characteristics that commonly affect image quality
  • Higher-risk patients
  • Younger patients, so as to minimize accumulated life-time radiation exposure
  • When myocardial blood flow quantification is identified by clinicians as a needed adjunct to the image findings   

ASNC's New PET Guidance in the News Download Both New Documents Here.

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