PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Simon Castro
AU  - Oswaldo Acosta-Montenegro
AU  - Daniele Muser
AU  - Sahra Emamzadehfard
AU  - Sara Pourhassan Shamchi
AU  - Thomas Werner
AU  - Benoit Desjardins
AU  - Anders Thomassen
AU  - Poul Flemming Hoilund-Carlsen
AU  - Abass Alavi
TI  - <strong>Association Between Common Carotid Artery Molecular Calcification Assessed by </strong><strong><sup>18</sup>F-NaF PET/CT and Biomarkers of Vulnerable Atheromatous Plaques: Results from the CAMONA Study. </strong>
DP  - 2017 May 01
TA  - Journal of Nuclear Medicine
PG  - 443--443
VI  - 58
IP  - supplement 1
4099  - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/58/supplement_1/443.short
4100  - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/58/supplement_1/443.full
SO  - J Nucl Med2017 May 01; 58
AB  - 443Background: Early identification of vulnerable, rupture-prone atherosclerotic plaques is of fundamental importance in prevention of cardiovascular events. In this setting, the predictive power of classical risk factors is limited, especially in patients with manifest atherosclerosis. Several serum biomarkers of inflammation and vascular calcification have been demonstrated to be related to pro thrombotic state and cardiovascular events. 18F-sodium fluoride (18F-NaF) PET/CT has been recently proposed to detect and quantify cardiovascular molecular calcification. However, its correlation with biomarkers of plaque vulnerability has never been studied. Objectives: We sought to investigate the relationship between molecular arterial mineral deposition in the common carotid artery assessed by 18F-NaF PET/CT and serum biomarkers of atherosclerotic plaque vulnerability.Methods: Out of 140 subjects a total of 128 patients in whom carotid artery could be segmented (mean age 48±14 years, 51% males) enrolled in the Cardiovascular Molecular Calcification Assessed by 18F-NaF PET/CT (CAMONA) study, were included in the analysis. All patients underwent PET/CT imaging 90-min after 18F-NaF administration. Tracer uptake in the common carotid arteries was quantitatively assessed by drawing regions of interest comprising the whole artery and measuring the blood-pool-corrected maximum and mean standardized uptake values (SUVmax and SUVmean, respectively) on each axial slice. Finally, average SUVmax and SUVmean were calculated over all slices and compared with serum levels of previously described biomarkers of atherosclerotic plaque and plaque vulnerability including white blood cell count (WBC), complement reactive protein (CRP), fibrinogen, homocysteine and hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c).Results: Average SUVmean showed a significant correlation with WBC, homocysteine and HbA1c, while SUVmax was significantly correlated with all the tested biomarkers (Table 1).Conclusion: Arterial mineral deposition in common carotid arteries assessed by 18F-NaF PET/CT is significantly correlated with biomarkers of plaque vulnerability furnishing a potential a novel imaging tool to the armamentarium of instruments aiming to identify patients at risk and monitor treatment effects.