ABSTRACT
Despite advances in therapy and prevention strategies, coronary artery disease (CAD) remains highly prevalent worldwide. This has stimulated continued expansion and refi nement of our noninvasive armamentarium for guiding diagnosis and management of CAD. The integration of positron emission tomography (PET) with multidetector CT scanners provides a unique opportunity to delineate cardiac and vascular anatomic abnormalities, and their physiological consequences in a single setting. It allows detection and quantifi cation of the burden and the extent of calcifi ed and non-calcifi ed plaques, quantifi cation of vascular reactivity and endothelial health, identifi cation of fl ow-limiting coronary stenoses, and assessment of myocardial viability. In this chapter, we will review technical considerations regarding the clinical use of PET/CT in cardiovascular disease, and the potential application of this integrated imaging strategy for diagnosis and management of CAD.
