Cardiac FDG PET Viability Registry

Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is a non-invasive, unique nuclear imaging technique that allows the evaluation of blood flow in the heart and provides information about the cell activity of specific organs such as the heart and brain. It also provides useful information for the management of patients with poor pumping function of the heart, heart failure, and coronary artery disease. A cardiac viability imaging looks at how the heart uses glucose (sugar) The imaging process determines areas of the heart that are alive (viable - using sugar) versus areas of the heart that are scar tissue (non-viable). F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) is the radioactive substance used to determine myocardial viability. This nuclear imaging technique has been shown to be useful in directing management for patient care. The Ministry of Health recognizes the clinical utility of FDG PET imaging for myocardial viability assessment and other cancer indications. Optimizing the potential advantages of FDG PET in Ontario, will require characterization of the patient population, referral patterns, upstream and downstream resource utilization and patient outcomes. Therefore, registry studies are being undertaken to provide specific information about the utility of PET in these clinical situations in Ontario. The proposed registry will facilitate monitoring of the implementation of this limited technology and allow continued evaluation of practice patterns and outcomes. The University of Ottawa Heart Institute is the coordinating centre for this project with PET centres in London, Hamilton and Toronto also participating. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the utility of FDG PET viability imaging in the decision making process for patients with poor left ventricular function who may be candidates for revascularization and to study the downstream effect of the clinical management decisions. Patients meeting specific inclusion criteria will be eligible for this study.