Cardiac PET, CT, and MR: what are the advantages of hybrid imaging?

Cardiac hybrid imaging combines different imaging modalities in a way where both modalities equally contribute to image information. Hybrid positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) imaging is a promising tool for evaluation of coronary artery disease (CAD) because it enables detection of coronary atherosclerotic lesions by CT angiography and their consequences on myocardial blood flow by PET perfusion in a single study. This appears to offer superior diagnostic accuracy in patients with intermediate risk for CAD compared with stand-alone imaging. Novel, commercially available hybrid scanners containing PET and magnetic resonance as well as development of targeted probes to evaluate molecular and cellular disease mechanisms are expected to provide many new applications for cardiac hybrid imaging. This article focuses on the advantages of cardiac hybrid imaging in the detection of CAD in light of currently available clinical data and discusses the potential future applications.