Radionuclides in the diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases

The rapid developments in radiopharmaceuticals, nuclear medicine instrumentation and the integration of computer science in nuclear medicine in the last decade has added a new dimension in the non-invasive investigation of cardiac diseases and in the following the effects of therapy. Today the cardiologist can be offered a detailed and accurate analysis of regional myocardial perfusion and ventricular wall motion, which was not possible few years ago in patients with a wide spectrum of cardiac disease. The information which is obtained by myocardial scintigraphy is often complementary to that provided by conventional cardiac catheterization and contrast angiography but frequently it is often unique. (author)