Toward improved standardization of PET myocardial blood flow

Excerpt

Quantification of myocardial blood flow (MBF) is becoming part of standard clinical practice in most centers performing cardiac PET imaging, as the added diagnostic and prognostic value is now well established and widely accepted. Despite (or perhaps because of) the rapid development and clinical adoption of PET MBF over the past few years, there remains an impressive variability in the imaging methods employed in the reported literature. For new centers starting a cardiac PET program, there are a number of choices to be made toward establishing a robust clinical service. Comparison between published methods and results can be difficult because of real (or perceived) differences in methodology and nomenclature. Improved standardization of reporting in the physical science and clinical research literature will help to streamline the clinical implementation and improve the reliability of PET (and eventually SPECT) MBF imaging. …