Myocardial blood flow quantitation with the SPECT technique: Is it ready to be a substitute for PET myocardial blood flow quantitation?

Excerpt

In the last ten years, myocardial blood flow quantitation (MBF) with the SPECT technique has been continuously investigated for its capability toward the clinical utilization. The outcome is to establish a widely available clinical tool that can offer an accurate measurement of MBF close to PET MBF quantitation for the diagnosis and prognosis of coronary artery disease (CAD). This clinical solution is particularly attractive and demanded for area (e.g., Asia and Australia) where PET MBF quantitation is not applicable due to the lack of suitable PET myocardial flow tracers as the main barrier. Even in areas (e.g., North America and Europe) where PET MBF quantitation is available, SPECT MBF quantitation still draws large interest because of its simplicity and lower cost to integrate into the SPECT user environment. …