Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, killing more than 1000 Americans each day. “In order to best evaluate heart conditions and determine the most effective treatment options, doctors need information on both the anatomy and the physiology of the heart,” noted Edwin C. Glass, one of the authors of the study comparing the results of different imaging techniques.
Glass and colleagues from the Department of Nuclear Medicine at the Medical Imaging Center of Southern California in Santa Monica, California presented their study at the Society of Nuclear Medicine’s 50th Annual Meeting. The study involved 51 patients. All patients underwent SPECT MPI and CT coronary calcium scanning and 39 of the 51 also had CCTA scans. Myocardial perfusion defects identified by MPI were compared to the locations of calcium deposits and plaque pinpointed by CCTA.
“Examining the scans together provided valuable information,” noted Glass. “For instance, we observed a strong link between severe myocardial perfusion defects and both heavy Ca deposits and intracoronary lesions found by CCTA. However, in more than half the cases, additional information was gleaned from the ensemble of tests that could not be discerned from any single test alone.” Researchers concluded that combining the results of both the functional SPECT MPI and anatomic CT scans would clearly benefit patients by providing a more comprehensive assessment of coronary artery disease, thereby allowing for better diagnosis and treatment.