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Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. More than 50% of CAD deaths occur in previously asymptomatic individuals at intermediate cardiovascular risk, highlighting the need of more accurate individual risk assessment to decrease cardiovascular events. Cardiac computed tomography (CCT) has emerged as a valuable technique for risk stratification in asymptomatic subjects and in symptomatic patients without known CAD. The absence of coronary artery calcium (CAC) identifies asymptomatic subjects at very low cardiac risk and is reasonable in intermediate risk individuals, in whom CAC measurement reclassifies a substantial number of subjects to different risk categories. In symptomatic patients with suspected CAD, detection of non-obstructive or obstructive CAD by CCT angiography is associated with increased all-cause mortality, and provides incremental risk stratification to CAC. Further studies are needed to assess the impact of CCT on clinical outcomes and its cost-effectiveness in different clinical settings.

Carotid Intima Media Thickness (IMT) has been widely used to predict cardiovascular events in primary and secondary prevention studies. Yet, the power of IMT to reclassify risk level on top of conventional risk assessment based on classical risk factors remains unsettled. In fact, recent data indicate that the prognostic power of IMT is lower than that provided by the identification of carotid plaques. The role of IMT as surrogate endpoint to assess the efficacy of cardiovascular protective therapies is also still debated. In fact, no studies have ever been designed and powered to show a relationship between changes in carotid IMT during follow-up and cardiovascular events. Recently, two metaanalysis of trials using IMT as surrogate endpoint failed to demonstrate an association between IMT regression and cardiovascular events. The reasons for the lack of predictive role for changes in IMT are uncertain. It has been shown that IMT is not a pure atherosclerotic index, being substantially affected by age and hemodynamic factors including blood pressure and vessel wall shear stress. In addition, the status of carotid vessels does not strictly reflect that of coronary arteries. Finally, intra and inter-observer variability of measurements may further limit the association between IMT changes in individual patients and cardiovascular risk. Thus, IMT represents a valuable risk marker in population studies but its role for tailoring cardiovascular therapy in clinical practice remains currently uncertain.

Cardiotoxicity as a result of cancer treatment is a novel and serious public health issue that has a significant impact on a cancer patient’s management and outcome. The coexistence of cancer and cardiac disease in the same patient is more common because of aging population and improvements in the efficacy of antitumor agents. Left ventricular dysfunction is the most typical manifestation and can lead to heart failure. Left ventricular ejection fraction measurement by echocardiography and multigated radionuclide angiography is the most common diagnostic approach to detect cardiac damage, but it identifies a late manifestation of myocardial injury. Early non-invasive imaging techniques are needed for the diagnosis and monitoring of cardiotoxic effects. Although echocardiography and cardiac magnetic resonance are the most commonly used imaging techniques for cardiotoxicity assessment, greater attention is focused on new nuclear cardiologic techniques, which can identify high-risk patients in the early stage and visualize the pathophysiologic process at the tissue level before clinical manifestation. The aim of this review is to summarize the role of nuclear imaging techniques in the non-invasive detection of myocardial damage related to antineoplastic therapy at the reversible stage, focusing on the current role and future perspectives of nuclear imaging techniques and molecular radiotracers in detection and monitoring of cardiotoxicity.

Purpose: Endothelial dysfunction (ED) is a common feature of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) and Diabetes Mellitus (DM), and is thought to underlie the increased cardiovascular risk of both conditions. However, while the association between coronary artery ED and DM has been evidenced in previous studies, no data are available about the relationship between CKD and coronary ED. Methods: 63 consecutive patients (mean age 60±10; 40 males), 25 of whom affected by Type II DM (mean age 62±10; 13 males) and 38 non diabetic subjects (mean age 59±11; 27 males), underwent, on the same day, transthoracic echocardiographic coronary flow reserve (CFR) evaluation during cold pressure test (CPT), to assess endothelium dependent vasodilation, and dipyridamole (Dip) infusion (0.84 mg/kg i.v. in 6 min), to evaluate endothelium independent vasodilation. Glomerular Filtration Rate (GFR), as an index of renal function, was estimated by serum creatinine values using Cockroft-Gault formula. All patients had no significant stenosis at coronary angiography performed within one month from enrolment. Results: Mean GFR was 90.27±26.98 ml/min in the whole population, 86.2±27.9 ml/min in DM patients and 92.94±26.39 ml/min in non DM patients (p=ns). Mean Dip-CFR (2.42±0.72 vs 2.84±0.73; p=0.028), as well as CPT-CFR (1.47±0.28 vs 1.65±0.29; p=0.02) were significantly lower in DM compared to non DM patients. In diabetic group, GFR correlated with both Dip-CFR (r=0.41; p=0.042) and CPT-CFR (r=0.579; p=0.002); moreover, DM patients in stage II/III of CKD (GFR