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European Heart Journal Advance Access originally published online on August 5, 2007
European Heart Journal 2007 28(18):2243-2248; doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehm245
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© The European Society of Cardiology 2007. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

The prevalence of inflammation in carotid atherosclerosis: analysis with fluorodeoxyglucose–positron emission tomography

Nobuhiro Tahara1, Hisashi Kai1,*, Hiroyuki Nakaura1, Minori Mizoguchi1, Masatoshi Ishibashi2, Hayato Kaida2, Kenkichi Baba2, Naofumi Hayabuchi2 and Tsutomu Imaizumi1

1 Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Cardiovascular Research Institute, Kurume University School of Medicine, 67 Asahimachi, Kurume, Fukuoka 830-0011, Japan
2 Department of Radiology, Kurume University School of Medicine, Kurume, Japan

Received 19 February 2007; revised 25 April 2007; accepted 18 May 2007; online publish-ahead-of-print 5 August 2007.

* Corresponding author. Tel: +81 942 31 7562; fax: +81 942 33 6509. E-mail address: naikai{at}med.kurume-u.ac.jp

Aims: There is increasing evidence that 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG)–positron emission tomography (PET) imaging can be useful for non-invasive measurement of atherosclerotic plaque inflammation in humans. However, it is unknown how often atherosclerosis has inflammation in humans. Thus, we examined the prevalence of inflammation in documented carotid atherosclerosis using FDG–PET imaging.

Methods and results: FDG–PET imaging was performed in 100 consecutive patients who underwent carotid artery ultrasonography (CA-US) for screening of carotid atherosclerosis. Carotid atherosclerosis was considered when patients had the plaque score ≥5 and/or the focal thickening of the maximum intima-media complex ≥2 mm (localized plaque) by CA-US. The inflammation of carotid atherosclerosis was quantified by measuring the standardized uptake value (SUV) of FDG of the carotid artery. Inflammation was defined as present if the SUV score was ≥1.60 (≥1xstandard deviation above the average). FDG–PET imaging revealed inflammation in 12 of 41 (29%) patients having carotid atherosclerosis, whereas in 6 of 59 (10%) patients not having carotid atherosclerosis (P < 0.01). In patients with documented atherosclerosis by CA-US, body mass index, waist circumference, and the number of localized plaques were greater in a subset with inflammation than in a subset without.

Conclusion: Inflammation was visualized by FDG–PET imaging in ~30% of patients with documented carotid atherosclerosis.

Key Words: Inflammation • Atherosclerosis • Carotid artery • Imaging


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