PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Michael Bindschadler AU - Bradley Petek AU - Shana Elman AU - Richard Cheng AU - Kris Patton AU - Laurie Soine AU - Adam Alessio TI - FDG Uptake Quantification and Right Ventricular Dysfunction in Cardiac Sarcoidosis DP - 2017 May 01 TA - Journal of Nuclear Medicine PG - 514--514 VI - 58 IP - supplement 1 4099 - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/58/supplement_1/514.short 4100 - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/58/supplement_1/514.full SO - J Nucl Med2017 May 01; 58 AB - 514Objectives: Right ventricular (RV) dysfunction occurs in many patients with cardiac sarcoidosis (CS) and can be a primary cause of heart failure. It is commonly thought, although not proven, that increased inflammation in the RV wall and interventricular septum portends poor RV function. This study aims to determine the association of FDG uptake in the RV and interventricular septum with RV dysfunction in CS patients.Methods: This retrospective study evaluated FDG uptake on Resting Rb82+Fasting FDG PET/CT scans in patients with confirmed CS (N=33 scans). Patients with poor RV function (N=15) as determined by echocardiograpy and tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) scores (< 18 mm) were compared to patient controls with normal RV function (N=18, TAPSE>=18mm). We developed and applied software to automatically extract seven quantitative measures of FDG uptake in the myocardium, RV region, and interventricular septum. These measures included conventional SUVmax in the left ventricle myocardium and newer measures such as total cardiac metabolic activity in the RV region (RVCMA). The FDG uptake measures were compared across TAPSE scores and between RV function groups.Results: All seven quantitative FDG uptake metrics correlated with 1/TAPSE scores (decreasing TAPSE scores were associated with increasing FDG uptake, r values ranged from 0.27 to 0.52). All of the measures revealed higher FDG uptake in the RV dysfunction group than in the controls, although only one of the metrics, the RVCMA, had a significant difference in the mean value in each group (378 ± 89 vs 144 ± 32 g, p=0.01). The average SUVmax in the RV region was 4.79 ± 0.53 g/ml in the RV dysfunction group and 4.14 ± 0.68 g/ml in the controls. The median value of RVCMA for the RV dysfunction group was 3.5 times higher than in the control group. The next best metric for discriminating these groups was the septal wall cardiac metabolic activity, which had a median value 2.9 times higher in the RV dysfunction group compared to controls.Conclusion: These results suggest that several proposed quantitative metrics relating RV or septal FDG uptake correlate with RV function as assessed by TAPSE. RVCMA shows a statistical distinction between normal and abnormal TAPSE patient groups. Interestingly, the second best performing metric, septal cardiac metabolic activity, suggests that increased septal inflammation may be a predictor of poor RV function. Research Support: None