15 O-labeled Water is the Best Myocardial Blood Flow Tracer for Precise MBF Quantification

Abstract

Oxygen-15-labeled water (15 O-H2O) is used as a radiopharmaceutical tracer with positron emission tomography (PET). Its short radioactive half-life permits consecutive rest and stress imaging acquisition while requiring an on-site cyclotron near a PET imaging system. 15 O-H2O PET has the disadvantage of being less than ideal for visual assessment; however, its high extraction fraction allows for highly accurate quantification of myocardial blood flow (MBF). Therefore, 15 O-H2O is considered to be a gold standard for MBF quantification. This is one of the great advantages of 15 O-H2O PET over other PET myocardial perfusion imaging modalities. The purpose of this review is to provide the advantages and characteristics of 15 O-H2O PET.