Are pet scans accurate or are other scans better?

PET SCAN/OTHER SCANS: Pet scan is accurate and is mainly used for cancer/metastasis and coronary artery disease mainly.It is a very sensitive test and defines the cellular level metabolic changes in an organ and it can detect early changes which may not be possible on MRI and cat scan exam. But for practical reasons the use of pet scan is limited as most of the conditions can be diagnosed with MRI or cat scan.

It depends.: It depends on the problem/concern. Pet scans are very accurate for diagnosing most types of cancer, and also have certain applications in cardiology and neurology. However, ct, mri, ultrasound, x-rays, and general nuclear medicine scans all have their own place. Sometimes one type of scan is better than another for a given situation. Other times, they are complementary with each other.

Depends: Depends on what you are looking for. PET scan usually uses a glucose based tracer to evaluate metabolic activity which can be increased in tumors. All modalities have a certain rate of false positives and negatives. Sometimes multiple modalities can each give you different information to obtain a complete evaluation.