Lantheus Medical Imaging is touting positive results from a phase II clinical trial of its PET radiopharmaceutical for use in detecting coronary artery disease.
In the study, PET myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) with flurpiridaz F-18 provided better image quality, diagnostic certainty, and diagnostic performance for detecting coronary artery disease when compared to SPECT MPI, Lantheus said.
The data also demonstrated a positive safety profile for PET imaging with flurpiridaz F-18.
Lead study author Dr. Jamshid Maddahi, professor of molecular and medical pharmacology medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, said the enhanced diagnostic performance may lead to more accurate testing and more appropriate patient management decisions compared to other noninvasive diagnostic modalities.
He presented study results on May 17 at the ICNC10 - Nuclear Cardiology and Cardiac CT conference in Amsterdam, according to Lantheus.
In the phase II trial, 143 patients from 21 centers underwent rest and stress PET and SPECT MPI and were evaluated for safety. Of these patients, 86 underwent coronary angiography and formed the population for evaluating diagnostic performance. PET MPI was performed with flurpiridaz F-18 at rest and at stress utilizing pharmacological coronary vasodilation or treadmill exercise.
Results showed that a significantly higher percentage of images were rated as excellent or good with PET compared to SPECT for stress images (98.8% versus 84.9%, respectively) and rest images (95.3% versus 69.8%).
Diagnostic certainty of interpretation also was greater for PET (90.7%) than SPECT (75.6%). In addition, sensitivity with PET imaging (78.8%) was greater than with SPECT (61.5%).
