PET Diagnostics
Positron Emission Tomography, or PET scanning, is a way of making images that show how the body works. In PET, a very small amount of a radioactive drug is given to a patient usually through an injection in the arm. The radioactive drug will go to certain parts of the body depending on which particular drug is used. After being injected with the radioactive drug, the patient is placed in a machine called a PET scanner. The PET scanner consists of thousands of small radiation detectors that measure the radiation that is being emitted by the radioactive drug within the patient. In this way, the PET scanner can make 3D images that show where the radioactive drug went in the body. A PET scan shows how the body is working and not just how it looks as other forms of medical imaging, such as CAT scanning and MRI, do
PET imaging is used to reveal how well the heart is functioning. A PET scan can determine the rate and path of blood flow to the heart muscle and the metabolic activity of the heart.
Positron emission tomography has the ability to measure chemical changes that occur in the body as a result of many disease processes. The most widely used application of PET in heart patients involves the analysis and location of heart muscle viability. Analysis of the viability of the muscle tissue is very important information when a doctor is in the process of determining the best treatment for a patient with heart muscle damage, after a heart attack. Attempting to increase blood circulation (via angioplasty or bypass surgery) to a portion of the heart muscle that is dead (not viable) is useless. PET therefore provides the information necessary to determine which areas of the heart muscle would benefit from this type of intervention