Absence of Coronary Artery Calcium During Positron Emission Tomography Stress Testing in Patients Without Known Coronary Artery Disease Identifies Individuals With Very Low Risk of Cardiac Events.

Background: Myocardial perfusion imaging, including positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT), is often used to assess for high-grade coronary artery disease (CAD) requiring revascularization. The use of coronary artery calcium (CAC) to predict risk of major adverse cardiovascular events in asymptomatic patients is accepted. However, little is known regarding the use of CAC in PET/CT patients without known CAD in identifying patients unlikely to need revascularization.

Implementation of a cardiac PET stress program: comparison of outcomes to the preceding SPECT era.

Background: Cardiac positron emission testing (PET) is more accurate than single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) at identifying coronary artery disease (CAD); however, the 2 modalities have not been thoroughly compared in a real-world setting. We conducted a retrospective analysis of 60-day catheterization outcomes and 1-year major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) after the transition from a SPECT- to a PET-based myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) program.

Methods: MPI patients at Intermountain Medical Center from January 2011-December 2012 (the SPECT era, n = 6,777) and January 2014-December 2015 (the PET era, n = 7,817) were studied.