Detección de inflamación en placa aterosclerosa: rol de la tomografía por emisión de positrones y de la proteína C reactiva / Detection of inflammation in an atherosclerose plaque: the role of the positron emission tomography and C reactive protein

OBJECTIVES: To demonstrate that inflammatory atheromatose carotid plaques can be visualized with positron emission tomography with 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18FDG PET) in symptomatic patients, in order to correlate them with systemic inflammatory markers, such as CRP. METHOD: Fifteen patients with cerebral ischemia due to atherosclerotic carotid disease were studied. 18FDG uptake with PET was considered and blood samples were taken for determining high sensibility C reactive protein (HsCRP). RESULTS: The mean age of the patients was 66 years; 11 of them were males (73%) and 4 were females (27%). 18FDG PET was positive in 12 patients (80%), while 100% of the studied population had low risk HsCRP with normal white cell count. CONCLUSIONS: 18FDG PET proves active inflammation in carotid atheromatose plaques. There was no significant correlation between the presence of ahteromatose carotid plaques, HsCRP serum levels, and 18FDG PET study.

Tomografía computada multidetector de arterias coronarias: estado del arte. Parte I: aspectos técnicos / Computer multidetector tomography of coronary arteries: state-of-the-art. Part 1: technical aspects

The study of atherosclerotic disease in coronary arteries is fundamental since it is the first cause of death in the Western hemisphere. The gold standard for its diagnosis is invasive angiography, but it contributes to an increase in costs for this group of patients. Nowadays fourth generation computed tomography (CT) equipments can construct acquisition data of up to 256 images in only 400 milliseconds (ms), which is 900 to 1000 times faster than first generation apparatus. CT multidetector (CTMD) is the noninvasive choice diagnosis method for a vascular evaluation of the thorax. Its role in the study of the heart was limited, but today it is possible to obtain three-dimensional heart and whole body images in only seconds. CTMD is a fast, low-cost, noninvasive method that generates cardiac and extra cardiac images without adjacent structure interference. The higher temporal resolution due to an increase of the gantry's rotation and new reconstruction algorithms, as well as its higher spatial resolution and elevated time acquisition due to the presence of more detectors, have permitted CTMD to give significantly better and precise diagnosis of coronary arteries.