Atherosclerosis is a major cause of critical cardiovascular disorders, including myocardial infarction, stroke, and peripheral arterial disease.
18F-sodium fluoride (
18F-NaF) positron emission tomography (PET) has recently gained attention in the field of cardiovascular diseases and data have shown its usefulness in identifying high-risk atherosclerotic lesions with active calcification.
1,
2 Lee et al. demonstrated that coronary plaques with high-risk characteristics on intravascular imaging (intravascular ultrasound and optical coherence tomography) had higher
18F-NaF uptake than those without such characteristics.
3 Kitagawa et al. assessed the relationship between the
18F-NaF signal on PET and the appearance of coronary atherosclerosis on cardiac computed tomography (CT) examination
4 and found the following: (1) The coronary calcium score was positively correlated with coronary arterial
18F-NaF uptake per patient; (2) patients with a history of myocardial infarction or unstable angina had higher coronary arterial
18F-NaF uptake; (3) focally increased
18F-NaF uptake in coronary atherosclerosis was independently correlated with the heterogeneous (partially calcified) plaque component; and (4) coronary plaques with high-risk features on coronary CT angiography (CCTA) had a higher
18F-NaF uptake on PET than those without. In addition, intense
18F-NaF uptake was shown in recently ruptured coronary plaques in patients with acute myocardial infarction.
5 These points highlight the potential of
18F-NaF PET imaging as an innovative approach to monitoring atherosclerosis. …
