This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Fluorodeoxyglucose PET promising in identifying atherosclerosis
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Although anatomic imaging with X-ray angiography is unable to obtain information about the degree of plaque inflammation, fluorodeoxyglucose analyzed during positron emission tomography has been suggested as a biomarker to report on the metabolic activity of atherosclerosis.
In addition to identifying symptomatic lesions, fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET may play a role in monitoring response of atherosclerosis to therapy. Researchers for a state-of-the-art paper cited results from several human studies detailing the relationship between arterial FDG signal and plaque inflammation, as well as animal models of atherosclerosis used to explore the basis of arterial FDG uptake, and concluded that results from the studies showed strong concordance (P<.001).
Present technical obstacles that still need to be overcome, according to the researchers, include the accumulation of FDG by the myocardium; the blurring of coronary plague FDG uptake produced by cardiac motion; the large spatial shifts between the PET and CT datasets; and the high degree of focal FDG accumulation needed to produce a detectable PET signal.
Nevertheless, the researchers remained confident that FDG PET will continue to find use in CV risk prediction and noninvasive anti-atherosclerosis drug testing. Future applications, they suggested, may include the prediction of plaque rupture and clinical events. However, they said the expense of PET and radiation burden will likely limit the use in large centers.
“The results of prospective studies such as the High Risk Plaque Initiative should help to define the place of noninvasive imaging such as FDG PET for the identification of patients at high risk of CV events,” they concluded. “Multicenter trials using this technology are already under way, and standardization of imaging acquisition and analysis protocols will assume more importance.”
Rudd J. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2010; doi:10.1016/j.jacc.2009.12.061.