PET finds early coronary disease in diabetic patients

PET may be diagnostically more powerful than ultrasound or CT for identifying early coronary artery disease in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Nuclear cardiologist Dr. Thomas Schindler and colleagues at the University of Geneva in Switzerland and the University of California, Los Angeles measured coronary endothelium dysfunction with nitrogen-13 ammonia PET and rest-stress PET.

They found diabetes patients with normal or elevated blood pressure showed significantly stronger signs of vascular disease than did normal controls. They also compared PET with high-resolution vascular ultrasound and multislice CT coronary calcium tests and found PET more sensitive than either sonography or CT. Results were presented at the 2008 SNM meeting.