ABSTRACT
Hybrid scanning generally implies an imaging system with hardware that acquires images with two types of information, such as physiologic and anatomic. Image fusion generally implies software methods that register the images with one type of information onto images with another type of information. Criticisms of a multimodality cardiac imaging approach usually start with concerns over radiation exposure to the patient and increased healthcare costs. This chapter addresses the technical, scientific, clinical, quantitative, and socioeconomic challenges. The term hybrid, as in hybrid images, implies a new type of image generated from the information of two other types of images and thus relates to the multibrid visualization of the image rather than how the information is acquired. Quantitative fusion allows important quantitative cardiac information to be preserved and utilized, and just as important, it allows the synergistic use of mutually complementary quantitative information to improve image and diagnostic accuracy.
