Stress Thallium-201/Rest Technetium-99m Sequential Dual Isotope High-Speed Myocardial Perfusion Imaging Validation Versus Invasive Coronary Angiography

The new cadmium-zinc-telluride (CZT) technology is a powerful tool for cardiac nuclear medicine. Indeed, recent clinical validation studies of CZT technology have documented a scan time reduction and low radiation dose without degradation of myocardial perfusion imaging in comparison with standard dual detector cameras. The increased photon counting sensitivity of camera can be used to explore novel protocols that may offer advantages over standard protocols used for Myocardial Perfusion Imaging. Berman et al. showed that rapid stress Tl-201/rest Tc-99m protocol for use with high-speed SPECT MPI has offered the superior qualities of Tl-201 for stress imaging and of the Tc-99m agents for rest imaging can be preserved. Nuclear medicine presents the most level of scientific validation for diagnosis and prognosis of coronary artery disease. A lot of studies have compared performance of standard dual detector cameras vs. Invasive Coronary Angiography. Fiechter et al. reported the first validation of ultrafast dedicated cardiac gamma camera with CZT versus invasive coronary angiography. But he used a novel hybrid SPECT /CT device and 99m-Tc-tetrofosmin pharmacological stress/rest examination. However, no study compares stress thallium-201/rest technetium-99m sequential dual isotope high-speed myocardial perfusion imaging versus invasive coronary angiography. Moreover, diagnosis performance of this high-speed protocol versus fractional flow reserve for stenosis evaluation is unknown.

The investigators report here the first validation of high-speed protocol with dual isotope for myocardial perfusion imaging using invasive procedures (coronary angiography and fractional flow reserve) as the standard of reference.