Assessment of atherosclerotic plaque calcification using F18-NaF PET-CT.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the uptake of F18-NaF by the arterial wall in patients with high cardiovascular (CV) risk profile. The tracer uptake was assessed in relation to gender and the number of CV risk factors. METHODS AND RESULTS: 25 patients without known CV disease were included and evaluated by PET-CT with F18-NaF 14 (56%) men and 11 (44%) women. The mean target-to-background ratio (TBR max SUV/mean blood-pool SUV) but not the corrected uptake per lesion (CUL max SUV - mean blood-pool SUV) was higher in men than women (TBR 1.8 ± 0.6 vs 1.7 ± 0.2; P = 0.04; CUL 0.7 ± 0.3 vs W 0.6 ± 0.1; P = 0.4). Patients with >3 CV risk factors had higher CUL (0.8 ± 0.1 vs 0.6 ± 0.2; P = 0.01) but not TBR (1.8 ± 0.2 vs 1.7 ± 0.6; P = 0.7) than patients with <3 risk factors. CONCLUSIONS: The TBR but not CUL is higher in men than women while the CUL but not TBR is related to the number of CV risk factors. These results are hypothesis-generating and require validation in larger studies.