Cardiovascular nuclear medicine current applications and the outlook for 1985.

There has been a rapid assimilation of nuclear imaging techniques into the armamentarium of physicians caring for cardiovascular disease patients. The most widely used tests have been thallium uptake and clearance for myocardial perfusion, and gated blood pool imaging for measurements of regional and global ventricular function. Understanding of the dynamics of the procedures has led to appreciation of the sensitivity of alterations in pulmonary distribution of those radiopharmaceuticals in predicting the presence of increased pulmonary capillary wedge pressure, the augmentation of thallium clearance by eating, and the complexity of the response of the ejection fraction to exercise. Applications of an ambulatory device for ventricular function testing, labeled myocardial metabolic markers, and vascular integrity agents such as labeled lipoprotein may characterize the directions taken in the last half of this decade.