Yale New Haven Health has become the first health system in Connecticut to offer a new positron emission tomography (PET) imaging agent for detecting coronary artery disease. The agent, Flyrcado (flurpiridaz F 18), is the first new cardiac perfusion tracer approved by the Food and Drug Administration in nearly three decades.
The PET tracer is administered intravenously and helps clinicians identify areas of reduced blood flow in the heart. This allows cardiologists to observe the effects of coronary artery blockages or damage with greater clarity compared to non-PET agents.
“PET imaging is widely regarded as a highly accurate method for assessing coronary artery disease,” said Edward J. Miller, MD, PhD, director of Nuclear Cardiology at Yale New Haven Hospital Heart and Vascular Center and professor at Yale School of Medicine. “With the addition of Flyrcado, we’re excited to offer an advanced option that supports high-quality imaging and may enhance diagnostic confidence for our patients.”
Currently, Yale New Haven Hospital is the only hospital in Connecticut providing this novel tracer.
Dr. Miller noted that Flyrcado offers three main benefits: it delivers high-quality images, improves sensitivity over non-PET agents for detecting coronary disease, and enables exercise-based PET scans for the first time. Unlike traditional PET stress tests that use medication to simulate exercise, Flyrcado allows doctors to capture images after actual physical activity on a treadmill. This approach provides more physiologic information about patient symptoms than chemical stress testing.
“If a patient says they’re short of breath when they’re walking, you can now put them on a treadmill, see how they’re doing, inject the F-18 Flyrcado, and see exactly what they’re feeling when they’re exercising,” Dr. Miller explained.
“There’s long been a need for advancements in PET imaging,” he added. “This new agent offers the potential for high-quality, highly sensitive and specific images for detecting coronary artery disease, including moderate cases.”
The introduction of this agent will also allow Yale New Haven Health to expand its PET imaging capabilities across its network hospitals.
Yale New Haven Health operates five hospitals throughout Connecticut and Rhode Island and includes several specialty networks as well as Northeast Medical Group—a nonprofit medical foundation with hundreds of physicians based in communities or employed by hospitals. The health system is affiliated with Yale University and Yale Medicine and serves as the primary teaching hospital for Yale School of Medicine.
