Imaging Plaque Inflammation in Higher-Risk Patients: What Do We Know and What Are We Looking For?
Abstract
Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory condition complicating cholesterol accumulation within the artery wall. Inflammation is believed to play an important role in the formation, progression, and ultimately the rupture of atherosclerotic plaques (the principle event leading to most myocardial infarctions and strokes). An enhanced understanding of the inflammatory process within the atheroma may therefore facilitate risk stratification and treatment strategies. Molecular imaging techniques such as PET/CT have the ability to quantify arterial inflammation and assess the high-risk features of atheromas thus may be useful for identifying patients who are at higher risk for an atherothrombotic event. In this review, we focus on the potential of FDG-PET/CT as a tool to measure arterial inflammation, enhance risk stratification, and to evaluate novel therapies directed against atherosclerotic disease. Additionally, this review will provide a discussion on current challenges as well as future directions.
Keywords
FDG-PET Inflammation AtherosclerosisNotes
Compliance with Ethics Guidelines
Conflict of Interest
Ahmed Tawakol reports grants and personal fees from Takeda, personal fees from Actelion, grants and personal fees from Roche/Genentech, and personal fees from Amgen outside the submitted work. Amorina Ishai has no conflicts relevant to this work.
Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent
This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by the author.
References
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