ABSTRACT
Alteration of fatty acid oxidation is considered to be a sensitive marker of ischemia and myocardial damage. On the contrary, persistence of glucose utilization is considered as a suitable marker of myocardial viability in the dysfunctional myocardium. While, positron emission tomography (PET) using fluorine-18 labeled fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) is considered as an accurate means for assessing myocardial viability, FDG-single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) using ultrahigh-energy collimators can provide similar information as FDG-PET with regard to viability assessment. Glucose and free fatty acids are major energy source in the myocardium. Each energy source requires enzymatic conversion before its breakdown. A more precise evaluation of percentage uptake, there are a minor differences between the FDG-SPECT and FDG-PET data. In the regions with a low tracer uptake, there was a tendency that the percentage uptake based on FDG-SPECT images was higher than that based on FDG-PET images, mainly due to scatter noise in the SPECT images.
