TY - JOUR T1 - PET imaging of arterial inflammation in people living with HIV infection: A comparison between [<sup>68</sup>Ga]Ga-Pentixafor and <sup>18</sup>F-FDG JF - Journal of Nuclear Medicine JO - J Nucl Med SP - 1660 LP - 1660 VL - 62 IS - supplement 1 AU - Ismaheel Lawal AU - Kgomotso Mokoala AU - Gbenga Popoola AU - Honest Ndlovu AU - Letjie Maserumule AU - Jens Kaufmann AU - Hakim Bouterfa AU - Hans Wester AU - Jan Rijn Zeevaart AU - Machaba Sathekge Y1 - 2021/05/01 UR - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/62/supplement_1/1660.abstract N2 - 1660Background: Arterial inflammation is the hallmark of atherogenesis and its complications. People living with human immunodeficiency virus (PLHIV) infection have an excess risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). 18F-FDG PET/CT is the most used modality to image arterial inflammation in ASCVD. There are several challenges with the use of 18F-FDG PET/CT for this purpose. In this study, we aimed to perform a head-to-head comparison of 18F-FDG PET/CT and [68Ga]Ga-pentixafor PET/CT for quantification of arterial inflammation in PLHIV. Methods: We prospectively recruited HIV-infected patients to undergo 18F-FDG PET/CT and [68Ga]Ga-pentixafor PET/CT within two weeks of each other. All recruited patients had been living with HIV infection for a minimum of 24 months and had completely suppressed HIV viremia on antiretroviral therapy. We obtained the maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) of arterial tracer uptake from the ascending aorta and carotid artery. We obtained the mean standardized uptake value (SUVmean) from the lumen of the superior vena cava and internal jugular vein for background correction. We computed the target-background-ratio for the ascending aorta and carotid artery by dividing the arterial SUVmax by the venous SUVmean. We used Bland and Altman plots to measure the level of agreement between tracer quantification parameters obtained on both scans. Results: A total of 12 patients were included with a mean age of 44.67 ± 7.62 years. The mean duration of HIV infection was 71.08 ± 37 months with a mean CD+ T-cell count of 522.17 ± 260.33 cells/µL, respectively. The mean activity of administered 18F-FDG was significantly higher than that of [68Ga]Ga-pentixafor (7.84 ± 1.17mCi and 4.70 ± 2.12mCi, p&lt;0.001). The median interval between the two scans was 2 days (range=1-11 days). We found a high level of agreement between the 18F-FDG PET-derived quantification variables and the [68Ga]Ga-pentixafor PET-derived variables in the aortic and carotid arterial beds with 91% to 100% of all measurements within the limits of agreement. There was a positive correlation between 18F-FDG PET and [68Ga]Ga-pentixafor PET-derived quantification variables obtained in the ascending aorta while similar parameters obtained in the carotid bed mostly showed negative correlation. Conclusions: There is a good level of agreement in the arterial tracer quantification variables obtained on 18F-FDG PET/CT and [68Ga]Ga-pentixafor PET/CT in PLHIV. This suggests that [68Ga]Ga-pentixafor may be used in the place of 18F-FDG PET/CT for the quantification of arterial inflammation. ER -