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18F-FDG accumulation in atherosclerosis: use of CT and MR co-registration of thoracic and carotid arteries

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to depict 18F-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG) accumulation in atherosclerotic lesions of the thoracic and carotid arteries on CT and MR images by means of automatic co-registration software.

Methods

Fifteen hospitalised men suffering cerebral infarction or severe carotid stenosis requiring surgical treatment participated in this study. Automatic co-registration of neck MR images and FDG-PET images and of contrast-enhanced CT images and FDG-PET images was achieved with co-registration software. We calculated the count ratio, which was standardised to the blood pool count of the superior vena cava, for three arteries that branch from the aorta, i.e. the brachial artery, the left common carotid artery and the subclavian artery (n=15), for atherosclerotic plaques in the thoracic aorta (n=10) and for internal carotid arteries with and without plaque (n=13).

Results

FDG accumulated to a significantly higher level in the brachial artery, left common carotid artery and left subclavian artery at their sites of origin than in the superior vena cava (p=0.000, p=0.000 and p=0.002, respectively). Chest CT showed no atherosclerotic plaque at these sites. Furthermore, the average count ratio of thoracic aortic atherosclerotic plaques was not higher than that of the superior vena cava. The maximum count ratio of carotid atherosclerotic plaques was significantly higher than that of the superior vena cava but was not significantly different from that of the carotid artery without plaque.

Conclusion

The results of our study suggest that not all atherosclerotic plaques show high FDG accumulation. FDG-PET studies of plaques with the use of fused images can potentially provide detailed information about atherosclerosis.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by a Grant-In-Aid for Scientific Research provided by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan and a grant from the Association of Nuclear Technology in Medicine in Japan. A special carotid artery coil was supplied by GE Medical Systems. We wish to thank Mika Sato, Risako Fujiwara and physicians in the stroke care unit for the patient arrangements, Akimitsu Sawaki for the mold arrangements and the entire radiology staff of the Research Institute for Brain and Blood Vessels–Akita.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Research Institute for Brain and Blood Vessels–Akita,, Akita, Japan

    Kumiko Okane, Masanobu Ibaraki, Hideto Toyoshima, Shigeki Sugawara, Kazuhiro Takahashi, Shuichi Miura & Eku Shimosegawa

  2. Department of Neurosurgery, Research Institute for Brain and Blood Vessels–Akita,, Akita, Japan

    Junichiro Satomi

  3. Research and Development Department, Medical Systems Division, Shimadzu Corporation, Kyoto, Japan

    Keishi Kitamura & Tomohiko Satoh

Authors
  1. Kumiko Okane
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  2. Masanobu Ibaraki
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  3. Hideto Toyoshima
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  4. Shigeki Sugawara
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  5. Kazuhiro Takahashi
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  6. Shuichi Miura
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  7. Eku Shimosegawa
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  8. Junichiro Satomi
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  9. Keishi Kitamura
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  10. Tomohiko Satoh
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Correspondence to Kumiko Okane.

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Okane, K., Ibaraki, M., Toyoshima, H. et al. 18F-FDG accumulation in atherosclerosis: use of CT and MR co-registration of thoracic and carotid arteries. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 33, 589–594 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-005-0005-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-005-0005-2

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