Cardiovascular nuclear medicine and functional imaging

The need for early detection of myocardial segments 'at risk', as revealed by provocative tests, and prevention of irreversible injury through medical or surgical treatments has stimulated the development of new non-invasive procedures. Among them, cardiovascular nuclear medicine provides qualitative and quantitative information on regional and global ventricular function which can be monitored and/or followed-up because of their good reproducibility and high diagnostic accuracy. The authors discuss the technique of radionuclide angiography and the computer algorithm (phase analysis) used to generate functional imaging. (Auth.)