Cardiovascular Business: SPECT Still Has an Important Role to Play in Nuclear Cardiology

In cardiac nuclear imaging, there has been a push for labs to upgrade aging equipment that can sometimes be 15-20 years old with new technology that can offer more diagnostic information and clearer images. A big focus has been on positron emission tomography (PET) because of its increased capabilities over the traditional workhorse technology of single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). However, most nuclear imaging experts say SPECT can still provide value.

Cardiovascular Business spoke with Timothy Bateman, MD, co-director of the cardiovascular radiologic imaging program at Saint Luke's Mid America Heart Institute and a professor of medicine at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine, who shared his views on SPECT advances and its longevity in the coming years.

"I think that SPECT is going to endure and will have its place. Looking forward, I don't really see that people are going to have the luxury of making a decision that I'm going to be a SPECT-only lab or a PET-only lab. You really have to have both. That's just the reality. We're looking after a disease process that's endemic and we need tools. So I see at least for the next decade, this being a SPECT and PET world, not one or the other," Bateman, an American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC) past-president, explained.

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