Simplified 18 F-FDG PET Myocardial Viability Preparation Protocol Reduces Hypoglycemia and Improves Workflow Efficiency While Maintaining Image Quality.

Total imaging time decreased from 175 ± 41 min to 144 ± 25 min ( P < 0.001), representing a mean reduction of 31 min.

The number of blood glucose measurements decreased from 8 ± 2 to 4 ± 1 ( P < 0.001).

Persistent blood-pool activity beyond 90 min decreased from 11% to 6% ( P = 0.2).

Across the full cohort of 955 studies, the simplified protocol improved the proportion of good-or-better image quality from 81% to 87% ( P = 0.03) and reduced the rate of poor or nondiagnostic studies from 5.4% to 1% ( P < 0.001).