Cardiac positron emission tomography (PET) scanning may be considered medically necessary to assess myocardial perfusion and thus diagnose coronary artery disease in individuals with indeterminate single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) scan; or in individuals for whom SPECT could be reasonably expected to be suboptimal in quality on the basis of body habitus.
Cardiac PET scanning may be considered medically necessary to assess myocardial viability in individuals with severe left ventricular dysfunction as a technique to determine candidacy for a revascularization procedure. (See the Background section regarding the relative effectiveness of PET and SPECT scanning.)
Cardiac PET scanning is investigational for quantification of myocardial blood flow for cardiac event risk stratification in individuals diagnosed with coronary artery disease.
Cardiac PET scanning may be considered medically necessary for diagnosing cardiac sarcoidosis in individuals who are unable to undergo magnetic resonance imaging. Examples of individuals who are unable to undergo magnetic resonance imaging include, but are not limited to, individuals with pacemakers, automatic implanted cardioverter defibrillators, or other metal implants.
