Temporal changes in cardiac SPECT utilization and imaging findings: Where are we going and where have we been?

Excerpt

SPECT myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) has become the “grand dame” of cardiac imaging: it has come a long way from modest beginnings more than 50 years ago (planar Tl-201 imaging) to current CZT SPECT with CT attenuation correction and attempts for absolute coronary flow determination. It has survived continuous predictions of imminent demise due to perceived danger of internal radiation and from the advent of new imaging modalities: stress echocardiography, positron emission tomography, and coronary CT angiography. The robust diagnostic and prognostic power of SPECT MPI has kept it relevant for decades with recent reports of decreasing volume and rate of abnormal findings again sounding the alarm of its demise. …