Abstract
Nuclear imaging techniques are increasingly used for evaluating patients with known or suspected cardiac sarcoidosis. In addition to assessing the likelihood that cardiac sarcoidosis is present or absent, data from these tests can also be used to risk stratify patients, and thus inform the potential need for various therapies. The most commonly used techniques include resting myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI), which can be performed with either single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) or positron emission tomography (PET), and imaging for myocardial inflammation using F18-Flurodeoxyglucose (FDG). Patients who have significant myocardial inflammation – as detected by FDG uptake – should be considered for anti-inflammatory therapies, although data regarding the benefit of such treatment remains limited. Among patients who are treated with anti-inflammatory therapies, serial PET exams may be useful for determining the response to therapy. The development of future tracers will further increase the capabilities of nuclear imaging techniques to guide the diagnosis and treatment of patients with cardiac sarcoidosis.
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© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
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Blankstein, R., Dorbala, S. (2015). Nuclear Imaging (SPECT and PET) in Cardiac Sarcoidosis. In: Freeman, A., Weinberger, H. (eds) Cardiac Sarcoidosis. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14624-9_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14624-9_6
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