Emerging PET Radiotracer May Improve Detection of Coronary Artery Disease in Obese Patients
In a recent interview at the SNMMI conference, Krishna Patel, M.D., discussed the benefits of the PET perfusion radiotracer agent 18F-flurpiridaz and new research findings showing the agent’s increased sensitivity and specificity in diagnosing coronary artery disease in obese patients.
The use of conventional imaging for diagnosing coronary artery disease (CAD) in obese patients can be challenging. Attenuation artifacts can be problematic with single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and a lack of crisp image quality is an issue with coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) in this patient population, pointed out Krishna Patel, MD, in an interview at the recent Society for Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) conference.
Higher radiation dosing is also a concern with both of the aforementioned modalities, noted Dr. Patel, an assistant professor of medicine (cardiology) and population health science and policy at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Accordingly, Dr. Patel and colleagues examined the use of the positron emission tomography (PET) perfusion radiotracer agent 18F-flurpiridaz in comparison to 99mTc-SPECT for detecting CAD in a subgroup analysis involving 298 obese patients (mean age of 62.1) from a phase 3 trial.
The researchers found that among obese patients, 18F-flurpiridaz demonstrated higher sensitivity rates (76.9 percent versus 69.2 percent) and specificity rates (66.9 percent versus 61.9 percent) in comparison to 99mTc-SPECT. The use of 18F-flurpiridaz also reduced radiation exposure by one-third (6.2 mSv PET) in comparison to tetrofosmin SPECT (9.9 mSv) and by one-half in comparison to sestamibi SPECT (12.4 mSv), according to Dr. Patel and colleagues.
Dr. Patel, the director of cardiac PET at Mount Sinai Morningside in New York City, added that other key benefits of 18F-flurpiridaz include a longer half-life (110 minutes) than other PET perfusion tracer agents and unit dose availability, factors that may significantly expand access to stress cardiac PET myocardial perfusion imaging.
For more insights from Dr. Patel, watch the video below.
ASCO: Study Reveals Significant Racial/Ethnic Disparities with PSMA PET Use for Patients with mPCa
May 30th 2025Latinx patients with metastatic prostate cancer were 63 percent less likely than non-Hispanic White patients to have PSMA PET scans, according to a study of 550 patients presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) conference.
CT Perfusion Study Shows Enhanced Detection of Medium Vessel Occlusions with Emerging AI Software
May 21st 2025The Rapid CTP AI software offered 23 percent greater detection of medium vessel occlusions in comparison to the Viz CTP AI software, according to research presented at the European Stroke (Organization) Conference (ESOC).
Can AI Predict Future Lung Cancer Risk from a Single CT Scan?
May 19th 2025In never-smokers, deep learning assessment of single baseline low-dose computed tomography (CT) scans demonstrated a 79 percent AUC for predicting lung cancer up to six years later, according to new research presented today at the American Thoracic Society (ATS) 2025 International Conference.
