Nuclear cardiology practice in Spain.

Background: In Spain, nuclear cardiology (NC) procedures represent the second most frequently performed studies in nuclear medicine (NM) centers.

Methods: The NC Working Group of the Spanish Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging invited NM departments across the country to answer an online questionnaire regarding 2014 activity.

Results: Data on 40,161 patients from 42 centers were collected. The responding public centers served 39% of Spain´s population. The estimated NC activity for public hospitals was 2 studies/1,000 population/year. Of all the NC procedures, 69% were SPECT myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI), 17% equilibrium ventriculography, 12% F-FDG PET, 1.3% first pass ventriculography, and <1% innervation and amyloidosis imaging, respectively. The most frequent NC study was a Tc tracer, exercise, 2-day MPI ECG-gated SPECT ordered by a cardiologist for diagnosis in an outpatient with 21 days of mean waiting time, the stress phase being supervised by both a cardiologist and a NM physician, with a NM physician writing a complete report.

Conclusions: A major challenge for NC in Spain is the gradual adoption of high-sensitivity, low-dose-dedicated cardiac SPECT cameras and the broadening of cardiac PET utilization with more cameras, and the availability of MPI tracers alongside the viability/inflammation setup.