New Haven, CT (Jan. 12, 2026) — Yale New Haven Health is the first health system in Connecticut to offer a new positron emission tomography (PET) imaging agent that offers the potential to significantly enhance clinicians’ ability to detect coronary artery disease.
The PET tracer, called Flyrcado™ (flurpiridaz F 18), is the first new Food and Drug Administration-approved cardiac perfusion agent in nearly 30 years. The agent is injected intravenously into patients and helps identify areas of reduced blood flow, allowing cardiologists to see the consequences of coronary artery blockages or damage with greater clarity than non-PET agents.
“PET imaging is widely regarded as a highly accurate method for assessing coronary artery disease,” Edward J. Miller, MD, PhD, director of Nuclear Cardiology, Yale New Haven Hospital Heart and Vascular Center; and professor of medicine, radiology and biomedical imaging 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.”
Yale New Haven Hospital is the only hospital in Connecticut offering the novel tracer.
Dr. Miller said the new isotope offers three major advantages: it provides high-quality images, offers improved sensitivity over non-PET agents for detecting coronary disease, and it makes exercise-based PET scans possible for the first time.
Unlike traditional PET stress tests which use medication to simulate exercise, Flyrcado allows doctors to capture images following actual exercise — a more physiologic way to assess symptoms that provides valuable information not possible with 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 said.
“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.”
Use of the new agent will allow the health system to expand its PET imaging capabilities across its other hospitals.
Yale New Haven Health (YNHHS), the largest and most comprehensive healthcare system in Connecticut, is recognized for advanced clinical care, quality, service, cost effectiveness and commitment to improving the health status of the communities it serves. YNHHS includes five hospitals – Bridgeport, Greenwich, Lawrence + Memorial, Westerly and Yale New Haven hospitals, several specialty networks and Northeast Medical Group, a non-profit medical foundation with several hundred community-based and hospital-employed physicians. YNHHS is affiliated with Yale University and Yale Medicine, the clinical practice of the Yale School of Medicine and the largest academic multi-specialty practice in New England. Yale New Haven Hospital is the primary teaching hospital of Yale School of Medicine. www.ynhhs.org
