Excerpt

Inflammation plays a major role in the development of atherosclerotic plaque1 and has been proposed as a marker of plaque vulnerability to identify patients at risk of vascular events.2 Plaque inflammation is characterized by increased macrophage infiltration and FDG uptake has been shown to correlate strongly with the number of macrophages present in plaques.3 Rudd et al showed that FDG accumulated and could be measured in vivo in carotid artery plaques associated with recent transient ischemic attacks but that asymptomatic arteries had less FDG accumulation.4 Thus, FDG uptake can be used to measure the degree of inflammation in tissues as confirmed with carotid endarterectomy specimens using CD-68 immunohistochemistry.5 FDG uptake in carotid arteries has also been shown to correlate with anatomical and histological features of plaques that are at high risk for rupturing.6 Carotid inflammation measured with FDG PET/CT has been shown to predict subsequent ipsilateral cerebrovascular events in a prospective study of 60 patients with recent stroke.7 …