Kirsten Bouchelouche, May 2016

The Department of Nuclear Medicine and PET-centre

The Department of Nuclear Medicine and PET-Centre is a core facility at Aarhus University Hospital in the diagnostic evaluation of patients with cardiac diseases.
In the past 15 years we have annually performed more than 1500 myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) studies  in patients with suspected or known ischemic heart disease, and more than 1000 MUGA studies annually for monitoring cardiac function (ejection fraction) during chemotherapy. Focusing on a multidisciplinary approach to patient care and research, we have a long-standing and very close collaboration with the Department of Cardiology and Department of Oncology at Aarhus University Hospital. 

Radioactive tracers

Two cyclotrons and a highly specialized radiochemistry laboratory give us the possibility to work with both established and novel PET-tracers and methods. We perform ⁸²Rb-PET for evaluation of myocardial perfusion, both in clinical practice and in research studies. ¹⁸F-FDG cardiac PET in combination with ⁸²Rb-PET is used clinical for evaluation of myocardial viability. Other tracers used in cardiac research studies include ¹⁵O-water PET, ¹¹C-acetate PET, ¹¹C-palmitate and ¹¹C-PIB.

Developing new methods

High quality scientific research in nuclear cardiology is valuable and the aim of our cardiac research is to develop, advance and evaluate new and established nuclear cardiac imaging methods to  optimize and improve the diagnosis, management and clinical outcome of patients with various cardiac diseases including, ischemic heart disease, heart failure, cardiomyopathies as well as diabetes.

Collaborators

The department has for a number of years conducted and published several clinical trials in collaboration with the Department of Cardiology at Aarhus University Hospital, and numerous cardiac research activities are ongoing in close collaborate on with The PET Centre in Uppsala, Sweden.