Review Article

Coronary artery disease still is the main cause of death worldwide in spite of recent improvements in therapeutic and interventional methods. With the introduction of revascularization therapy, using coronary artery bypass grafting and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), the need for identifying viable myocardium has arisen. Furthermore, by preoperatively assessing the transmural size of the infarct, the functional recovery of dysfunctional segments after revascularization therapy in patients with chronic LV dysfunction can be predicted (1-3). A number of indirect techniques have been introduced to assess myocardial viability. These techniques are echocardiography (for assessing recovery of contractile function), fluoro-2-deoxygluclose (FDG) positron emissio