PET MPI testing is used to determine how well blood is flowing through the heart. The scan uses a radioactive drug called a tracer to show areas that are not getting enough blood flow.

The procedure’s higher diagnostic efficacy, compared to the standard MPI method, could help improve accuracy for patients with a high body mass index and women who are more difficult to image.

However, MPI is currently used in a minority of PET scans in the U.S. because of limited access to available tracers.

Flyrcado’s half-life of 109 minutes is significantly longer than that of existing PET MPI tracers, GE Healthcare said, which means it can be manufactured in an offsite pharmacy and delivered as a ready-to-use unit dose. This removes the need for on-site tracer production and generator maintenance, opening up distribution to a wide network of hospitals and imaging centers.