Cardiovascular nuclear medicine: an overview.

Some of the available cardiovascular nuclear medicine methods are incompletely validated, and others are incompletely developed. They are, however, of very great potential in diagnostic cardiology, and in patient management. A new era of clinical research and acute care monitoring has been opened by serial, noninvasive, hemodynamic measurements of right ventricular as well as left ventricular function. Stress testing has become more specific, and should, with future developments, become more sensitive, using radionuclide procedures. Serious quality control and validation questions concerning thallium stress testing must be addressed. Intracoronary injection of radiogases has great potential, although minimal present application. Emission computerized tomography will be an important research tool. Compartmental analysis modeling of first pass tracer injections has much to offer, but is not yet validated. Present growth rate of these procedures is very rapid. Fully developed, cardiovascular nuclear medicine may become the largest component of clinical nuclear medicine practice.