Modern possibilities of cardiovascular imaging using gamma cameras with cadmium-zinc-telluride-detectors

Myocardial perfusion imaging is considered one of the leading non-invasive diagnostic tools for the assessment of patients with known or suspected coronary artery disease and other cardiac pathologies. The technical improvement of the currently used gamma-tomographic devices has increased the diagnostic capability of this technique. In recent years, the use of dedicated cardiac SPECT cameras with solid-state cadmium-zinc-telluride (CZT) technology has increased in nuclear imaging. These new CZT technologies have several advantages over existing scanner models. The development of new CZT detectors and their collimator configuration has increased scanning sensitivity and spatial resolution values. Also, due to the significantly higher sensitivity of new CZT detectors and new methods of data processing, radiologists have already introduced new scanning protocols and methods for radionuclide assessment of myocardial blood flow, reserve and non-invasive visualisation of the functioning of the sympathetic nervous system into clinical practice. The purpose of this review is to provide data on the main technical characteristics of gamma cameras equipped CZT detectors as well as the current possibilities of using CZT cameras for examining patients with various cardiovascular diseases.