A new method for determining whether patients with heart disease need coronary stents or bypass surgery is more effective than the angiogram, which is currently used, according to research from UTHealth Houston Heart & Vascular.
A team led by K. Lance Gould, MD, professor and the Martin Bucksbaum Distinguished University Chair in Heart Disease with McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston, used positron emission tomography (PET) imaging technology to map coronary blood flow and its outcomes – namely, subendocardial ischemia – among patients with heart disease. The study was published in JACC Journals.