New Cardiac PET Case! Does the Radiotracer Change the Picture?

“Serial scans are now increasingly performed in cardiac transplant patients as a part of CAV surveillance. This case illustrates how radiotracer selection can impact what you see.”

– James A. Case, PhD, MASNC
Author of Visual Perfusion vs Absolute Blood Flow: Differences in Imaging Agents

How much of what you see on a PET myocardial perfusion image reflects the underlying disease, and how much reflects the properties of the radiotracer?

New case on ASNC.org! Visual Perfusion vs Absolute Blood Flow: Differences in Imaging Agents prompted this month’s Cardiac PET Case Challenge. We asked members to review the patient’s perfusion images and myocardial blood flow findings and vote on what their interpretation suggests about CAV progression. View the poll. 

This month’s cardiac PET case explores this question through serial PET studies in a cardiac transplant patient undergoing surveillance for coronary allograft vasculopathy. The case compares studies performed one year apart using different PET radiotracers and illustrates why differences in image appearance do not necessarily indicate disease progression.

View Case