Guidelines for clinical use of cardiac radionuclide imaging, December 1986. A report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on Assessment of Cardiovascular Procedures (Subcommittee on Nuclear Imaging).

This report describes the nuclear cardiology procedures available for use as diagnostic techniques in patients with definite or suspected cardiovascular disease. The usefulness of myocardial imaging, radionuclide angiocardiography, and other radionuclide cardiovascular imaging techniques is classified within specific disease states. The clinical utility of each technique is graded from I to IV, depending on the clinical importance of the technique (I equals most important; IV equals not indicated). A grade of V is given for methods now considered to be in their research phase. The usefulness of these methods is discussed in patients with acute ischemic heart disease, chronic ischemic heart disease, valvular heart disease, pulmonary vascular disease, and hypertensive heart disease. Selected references are provided.