Coalition of Medical Societies Releases Standardized Recommendations for Cardiovascular Infection Imaging

A coalition of 11 professional medical societies, according to a press release from IDSA (Infectious Diseases Society of America), has released standardized recommendations for using PET/CT and SPECT/CT imaging to “improve the evaluation and subsequent outcomes of patients with cardiovascular infection.”

The incidence of cardiovascular infection has increased “as use of prosthetic heart valves and implanted cardiac devices” goes up. With the increased incidence in cases comes “associated high morbidity and mortality,” according to Jamieson M. Bourque, chair of the statement’s multisociety writing committee. Bourque lauds the document, released on March 11 in the Journal of Nuclear Cardiology, Clinical Infectious Diseases, Heart Rhythm Journal, and JACC: Cardiovascular Imaging, for providing “evidence-based consensus on specific clinical scenarios where FDG PET/CT and SPECT/CT add value for patient care in the context of robust multimodality imaging approaches available.

The document “outlines the indications for echocardiography, cardiac computed tomography angiography, radiolabeled leukocyte SPECT/CT, and 18 F-FDG PET/CT in cardiovascular infection evaluation. The authors then provide a consensus-derived clinical indication rating of Appropriate, May Be Appropriate or Rarely Appropriate for use of 18 F-FDG PET/CT and SPECT/CT in 73 clinical scenarios encompassing suspected native and prosthetic valve infective endocarditis, suspected cardiovascular implantable electronic device (CIED) infections, suspected prosthetic material infection and suspected ventricular assist device (VAD) infection.”