Nuclear cardiology has for many years been focused on gamma camera technology. With ever improving cameras and software applications, this modality has developed into an important assessment tool for ischaemic heart disease. However, the development of new perfusion tracers has been scarce. While cardiac positron emission tomography (PET) so far largely has been limited to centres with on-site cyclotron, recent developments with generator produced perfusion tracers such as rubidium-82, as well as an increasing number of PET scanners installed, may enable a larger patient flow that may supersede that of gamma camera myocardial perfusion imaging.
Keywords: cardiac PET; cardiac SPECT; cardiology; myocardial perfusion imaging; rubidium.
© 2013 The Authors. Clinical Physiology and Functional Imaging published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of the Scandinavian Society of Clinical Physiology and Nuclear Medicine.