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The complementary roles of dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose PET/CT for imaging of carotid atherosclerosis

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European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Inflammation and neovascularization in vulnerable atherosclerotic plaques are key features for severe clinical events. Dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) MRI and FDG PET are two noninvasive imaging techniques capable of quantifying plaque neovascularization and inflammatory infiltrate, respectively. However, their mutual role in defining plaque vulnerability and their possible overlap has not been thoroughly investigated. We studied the relationship between DCE-MRI and 18F-FDG PET data from the carotid arteries of 40 subjects with coronary heart disease (CHD) or CHD risk equivalent, as a substudy of the dal-PLAQUE trial (NCT00655473).

Methods

The dal-PLAQUE trial was a multicenter study that evaluated dalcetrapib, a cholesteryl ester transfer protein modulator. Subjects underwent anatomical MRI, DCE-MRI and 18F-FDG PET. Only baseline imaging and biomarker data (before randomization) from dal-PLAQUE were used as part of this substudy. Our primary goal was to evaluate the relationship between DCE-MRI and 18F-FDG PET data. As secondary endpoints, we evaluated the relationship between (a) PET data and whole-vessel anatomical MRI data, and (b) DCE-MRI and matching anatomical MRI data. All correlations were estimated using a mixed linear model.

Results

We found a significant inverse relationship between several perfusion indices by DCE-MRI and 18F-FDG uptake by PET. Regarding our secondary endpoints, there was a significant relationship between plaque burden measured by anatomical MRI with several perfusion indices by DCE-MRI and 18F-FDG uptake by PET. No relationship was found between plaque composition by anatomical MRI and DCE-MRI or 18F-FDG PET metrics.

Conclusion

In this study we observed a significant, weak inverse relationship between inflammation measured as 18F-FDG uptake by PET and plaque perfusion by DCE-MRI. Our findings suggest that there may be a complex relationship between plaque inflammation and microvascularization during the different stages of plaque development. 18F-FDG PET and DCE-MRI may have complementary roles in future clinical practice in identifying subjects at high risk of cardiovascular events.

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Acknowledgments

F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd funded the dal-PLAQUE study and provided third-party editorial support, through Prime Healthcare Ltd, for the preparation of the manuscript. C.C. acknowledges grant and research support from the National Institutes of Health and National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NIH/NHLBI R01 HL071021, NIH/NHLBI R01 HL078667 and NIH/NCRR UL1RR029887).

Conflicts of interest

S.R., D.I.-G., A.M., D.R., J.B., E.M., J.G. and V.F. indicate that they have nothing to disclose. VM discloses that he receives consulting fees from Tursiop Inc. A.T. discloses that he has received honoraria from Roche, BMS and Novartis, and research grants from Merck, BMS, Genentech, GSK and VBL. M.W. discloses that he has received honoraria from Roche. D.K. is an employee of F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. M.E.F. discloses that he has received honoraria from Roche and acted as a consultant to Genentech. J.H.F.R. discloses that he has received honoraria from Roche and is part-supported by the National Institute for Health Research Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre. Z.A.F. discloses that he has received research grants from Roche, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, VBL Therapeutics, Novartis, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Via Pharmaceuticals, and honoraria from Roche.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Translational and Molecular Imaging Institute, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, One Gustave L. Levy Place, Box 1234, New York, NY, 10029, USA

    Claudia Calcagno, Sarayu Ramachandran, Venkatesh Mani, Antoine Millon & Zahi A. Fayad

  2. Department of Radiology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA

    Claudia Calcagno, Sarayu Ramachandran, Venkatesh Mani, Antoine Millon & Zahi A. Fayad

  3. Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Harvard University - MIT - Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA

    David Izquierdo-Garcia

  4. Hopital Pitié Salpétrière, Paris, France

    David Rosenbaum

  5. Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

    Ahmed Tawakol

  6. George Institute, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    Mark Woodward

  7. Department of Nuclear Medicine, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    Jan Bucerius

  8. Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht (CARIM), Maastricht, The Netherlands

    Jan Bucerius

  9. Department of Nuclear Medicine, Rheinisch-Westfaelische Technische Hochschule Aachen, Aachen, Germany

    Jan Bucerius

  10. Biostatistics Shared Research Facility, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA

    Erin Moshier & James Godbold

  11. F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, Basel, Switzerland

    David Kallend

  12. Cardiovascular Institute, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA

    Michael E. Farkouh, Valentin Fuster & Zahi A. Fayad

  13. Peter Munk Cardiac Centre and Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, Toronto, Canada

    Michael E. Farkouh

  14. The Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC), Madrid, Spain

    Valentin Fuster

  15. Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    James H. F. Rudd

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  1. Claudia Calcagno
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  2. Sarayu Ramachandran
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  4. Venkatesh Mani
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Correspondence to Zahi A. Fayad.

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Calcagno, C., Ramachandran, S., Izquierdo-Garcia, D. et al. The complementary roles of dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose PET/CT for imaging of carotid atherosclerosis. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 40, 1884–1893 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-013-2518-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-013-2518-4

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