Nuclear cardiac stress testing in the era of molecular medicine.

The objective of cardiac stress testing is to detect coronary artery disease (CAD) and to prevent future adverse events, such as myocardial infarction or death. The progression from electrocardiographically based stress testing to current SPECT and PET technologies has brought improvements in diagnostic efficacy and resolution. Myocardial perfusion imaging facilitates management of CAD in elective and acute settings by providing valuable diagnostic and prognostic information. Hybrid PET/CT and SPECT/CT systems impart complementary information of coronary anatomy and its physiologic significance on blood flow reserve. In the current era, diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease is increasingly defined by underlying molecular and genomic aberrations rather than by clinical signs and symptoms alone. Nuclear imaging is uniquely primed to exploit the targeting of expressed cell-surface molecules and intracellular processes of cardiovascular disease and to foster the development of innovative therapeutic interventions in the future.