What Does the Future Hold for Nuclear Medicine?

Catch up on the latest imaging research from the recent European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress.

Elevated coronary inflammation, measured with the CCTA-derived and AI-enabled perivascular fat attenuation index (FAI) score, was associated with over a 12-fold higher risk for cardiovascular mortality in patients with no diabetes, hypertension, smoking history or obesity, according to new research presented at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress.

New research presented at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) conference demonstrates that fractional flow reserve (FFR) based off CCTA exams significantly decreases unnecessary invasive coronary angiography (ICA) procedures for patients with stable chest pain and obstructive stenosis.

Reportedly one of the first FDA-cleared chest X-ray AI software platforms derived from a foundation model, the Chest Xray software facilitates detection and localization of lung nodules, pneumothorax, mediastinal abnormalities and other thoracic abnormalities.

Incorporating structural MRI to improve PET imaging resolution, the MICSI-PET software also offers automated Centiloid quantification from amyloid PET scans.

Emerging research demonstrates the increasing stability of attenuation on clinically relevant VMIs with photon-counting CT and a redefined role of kV that may have implications for longitudinal quantitative CT.

For patients with intermediate-risk prostate cancer, those with lower apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values on pre-treatment DWI MRI had a fourfold higher prevalence of distant metastasis in a study with a 10.3-year median follow-up.

In the second of a two-part podcast episode, Lauren Nicola, MD, Christoph Wald, MD, PhD, MBA, and Peter Shen discuss challenges with evaluating value and ROI for AI software, the physician time required to do so, and possible solutions to facilitate improved clarity and consistency with AI reimbursement.