Current Status of Nuclear Cardiology in South Korea

Abstract

Nuclear cardiology studies have been part of nuclear medicine practice from 1970s in Korea. It showed a steep growth in 1990s when single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) with advanced software was introduced, and it is still growing. SPECT myocardial perfusion imaging takes 12.8% of total gamma imaging studies in 2016. Although ²⁰¹Tl is still preferred to ^99mTc for myocardial perfusion tracer there is a trend of growing use of ^99mTc perfusion agents. While, the use of cardiac positron emission tomography (PET) is still very limited, which takes less than 1% of total PET studies. The reimbursement for cardiac PET includes only ¹⁸F FDG imaging for myocardial viability assessment in patients with acute myocardial infarction before and after revascularization. Cardiac FDG PET studies for sarcoidosis, amyloidosis, myocarditis, and vasculitis are reimbursed in only limited cases. ¹³N ammonia is the only PET myocardial perfusion tracer that is approved by the Korean Food and Drug Administration. A multi-disciplinary group, the Korean study group of cardiovascular imaging (KCI), is trying to establish new guidelines which include the most up-to-date information on cardiac imaging modalities in various clinical scenarios.