Cardiac PET: A Versatile, Quantitative Measurement Tool for Heart Failure Management

Current American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology practice guidelines classify congestive heart failure (CHF) in 4 stages (A, B, C, and D). This review focuses on state-of-the-art and future applications of quantitative positron emission tomography (PET) myocardial perfusion and metabolic imaging in the clinical evaluation and treatment of patients in all CHF stages. Basic physiological and metabolic principles related to the regulation of myocardial blood flow and metabolism at various stages of CHF are briefly reviewed. The advantages of quantitative PET image analysis in contrast to simple qualitative visual analysis of the scans also will be addressed. Finally, potential future clinical applications of quantitative PET for CHF evaluation and treatment will be discussed.