The clinician's view of cardiac diagnostic imaging
Marcassa, C.
Quarterly Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging Official Publication of the Italian Association of Nuclear Medicine and the International Association of Radiopharmacology and Section of the Society Of. 54(2): 118-128
2010
ISSN/ISBN: 1824-4785 PMID: 20588209 Document Number: 640638
In the last 30 years, non-invasive cardiac imaging was employed for the diagnostic and prognostic assessment of patients with suspected or known coronary artery disease. Nuclear myocardial perfusion scintigraphy or stress echocardiography provide a high sensitivity and specificity in the detection of functionally significant coronary artery disease (CAD) and demonstrated incremental diagnostic and prognostic value over exercise electrocardiography and clinical variables. Recently, cardiac computed tomography has been increasingly used a non-invasive tool for the detection and quantification of coronary artery stenoses and calcifications. The increase in this technical "offer" induces a significant increase in the "demand" for non-invasive imaging assessment, with a rise in the number of imaging studies performed in the last years, which appropriateness, however, is often questionable. A critical evaluation of the use of imaging techniques in different clinical scenarios is briefly discussed.