Morphological and functional cardiac imaging offers crucial diagnostic information for evaluating a large spectrum of cardiovascular diseases. Cardiac imaging can assist with detection of coronary blood flow abnormalities, cardiac function status including identification of pharmacologically or metabolically-induced cardiotoxicity or evaluating the myocardial response to non-invasive (medication) or invasive (interventional devices) procedures.

However, implementation of successful imaging endpoints depends on careful and efficient planning of trial design, reliable data acquisition, and processing. The radiologists at DICE can provide active guidance in the process of image acquisition parameter standardization and post-acquisition data processing.

Our areas of expertise include:

• Coronary artery diseases
• Cardiomyopathies
• Heart failure
• Myocardial function surveillance during cytotoxic/targeted therapy in oncologic patients
• Valvular diseases

Imaging modalities:

• Nuclear medicine scintigraphic scans using radiopharmaceuticals based on ^99mTc such as ^99mTc-MIBI, performed at rest or during stress (exercise testing or pharmacologically induced stress)
• PET scans for perfusion and viability scans using ⁸²Rb, ¹³N, ¹⁵O and ¹⁸F-FDG
• MUGA scan for detection and evaluation of cardiotoxicity using ^99mTc

Interpretation criteria:

• Quantitative
  • Quantified Perfusion SPECT (QPS)
  • For cardiac function reserve
• Qualitative
  • PET perfusion for assessment of coronary blood flow supply
  • PET viability for evaluating the utility of invasive reperfusion procedures in patients with left ventricular dysfunction
  • Cardiac valvular function status