Cardiac PET Scan for Heart Disease
Standard stress tests tell you whether blood flow to your heart looks normal or abnormal compared to other regions. Cardiac PET goes further. It measures exactly how much blood reaches each part of your heart muscle, in absolute terms. This quantitative precision detects problems that other imaging methods miss and provides prognostic information that directly shapes treatment decisions.
Cardiac PET matters because coronary artery disease does not always announce itself clearly. Balanced three-vessel disease can appear normal on conventional stress tests when all territories are equally compromised. Microvascular dysfunction can cause angina and elevate cardiovascular risk even when large coronary arteries appear open. PET’s ability to quantify myocardial blood flow and coronary flow reserve identifies these patterns that relative perfusion imaging cannot see.
Yet despite superior diagnostic accuracy, cardiac PET remains underutilized. Cost, limited availability, insurance barriers, and referral patterns all affect access. Many cardiologists default to SPECT because it is familiar, available, and adequately accurate for most patients. Patients who might benefit from PET’s advantages often do not know to ask for it. The articles below provide everything you need to understand this technology, evaluate whether it might benefit you, and navigate the healthcare system to access it.