The progress of research on the assessment of viable myocardium

The techniques development of myocardial perfusion imaging quantitative analysis, gated SPECT imaging, ¹⁸F-fluorodeoxyglucose(¹⁸F-FDG) and ⁹⁹Tc^m-sestamibi(⁹⁹Tc^m-MIBI) dual isotope simultaneous acquisition (DISA), interventional echocar-diography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have enhanced the recognition of myocardium viability. The combined applications of interventional echocardiography, myocardial perfusion imaging and myocardial metabolic imaging may improve accuracy for assessing viability. The assessment of myocardial viability allows identification of patients who are most likely to benefit from coronary revascularization, and prognosis of increase in left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and improvement in heart failure symptoms postopera-tively.