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Cardiology Overview
Your patient’s care is of the utmost importance to you. Positron Emission Tomography (PET) offers one more way to guarantee your patient the best care available. PET contributes significantly to improved cardiology care for your patient. Currently, Medicare reimburses PET studies for both myocardial viability and perfusion.
Myocardial Viability
PET has demonstrated an excellent ability to differentiate viable from non-viable myocardium and is considered to be the Gold Standard for viability imaging. PET can help the physician determine if the cardiac tissue in question is still alive, hibernating or dead and thus whether the patient could benefit by revascularization, a key treatment decision. The foundation of PET’s usefulness in viability determinations is that the myocardium prefers to metabolize glucose while fibrous tissue or scar tissue will not accumulate FDG.
Myocardial viability imaging helps to:
- Identify which patients will likely benefit from medical therapies or invasive revascularization procedures
- Evaluate the effectiveness of invasive procedures, other medical therapies and lifestyle modifications
- Preoperative evaluation of selected patients recommended for non-cardiac surgery to assess cardiac risk
Medicare currently covers the use of PET to determine myocardial viability as a primary initial diagnostic study prior to revascularization, or following an inconclusive SPECT study.
Perfusion
PET scans are used for the noninvasive imaging of the perfusion of the heart for the diagnosis and management of patients with known or suspected coronary artery disease. Perfusion PET studies use the radiopharmaceuticals ammonia N-13 or Rubidium 82 and help determine the blood flow to areas of the heart. This perfusion information helps physicians determine the need for treatment.
Medicare currently covers the use of PET for cardiac perfusion in many clinical situations. However, the availability of the required radiopharmaceuticals limits the accessibility of PET perfusion studies.
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