PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Reza Piri AU - Gauher Lici AU - Pooriya Riyahimanesh AU - Oke Gerke AU - Abass Alavi AU - Poul Flemming Hoilund-Carlsen TI - Two-year change in 18F-sodium fluoride uptake in the carotid arteries of healthy subjects and angina pectoris patients DP - 2021 May 01 TA - Journal of Nuclear Medicine PG - 1669--1669 VI - 62 IP - supplement 1 4099 - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/62/supplement_1/1669.short 4100 - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/62/supplement_1/1669.full SO - J Nucl Med2021 May 01; 62 AB - 1669Introduction: Microcalcification in the arterial wall traced by 18F-sodium fluoride (NaF) positron emission tomography (PET) is considered an indicator of early phase atherosclerosis and a potential precursor of macrocalcification detectable by computed tomography (CT). Ongoing carotid artery disease is a major cause of stroke that typically occurs without preceding symptoms. Thus, methods that can detect and monitor early phase carotid atherosclerosis may be of clinical interest. We aimed to examine 2-year changes in carotid NaF uptake by means of repeat NaF-PET/CT. Methods: Twenty-nine healthy subjects and 20 angina pectoris patients underwent 90-min NaF-PET/CT twice two years apart using the same scanner in each patient on both occasions. The right and left main carotid arteries were manually segmented. NaF uptake was expressed as the mean and total standardized uptake values without and with partial volume correction (SUVmean, SUVtotal and cSUVmean, cSUVtotal). Results: Recorded NaF uptake values are shown in Table 1. Insignificant tendencies were similar or higher NaF uptake in angina patients at both time points with less uptake in healthy subjects and generally higher uptake in angina patients after 2 years. Thus, mean (± standard deviation) right carotid cSUVmean of angina patients was 1.84±0.56 and 1.88±0.97 at baseline and after 2 years (p=0.15) vs. 1.62±0.35 and 1.44±0.36 in healthy subjects (p=0.001). Similarly, left carotid cSUVmean of angina patients was 1.5±0.44 and 1.53±0.51 at baseline and after 2 years (p=0.87) vs. 1.43±0.23 and 1.34±0.27 in healthy subjects (p=0.08). NaF uptake at baseline could not predict a change in CT-calcification after 2 years. Conclusions: Slightly higher NaF uptake in the angina group indicated more ongoing carotid microcalcification at both time points in patients than in healthy subjects. The 2-year changes were very small in both groups, albeit with a tendency of slight decreases among healthy controls, suggesting a more dynamic, waxing and waning, process in these compared to a slow, but more consistent, progression in angina patients despite statin therapy in half of these.