Two-year change in 18F-sodium fluoride uptake in major arteries of healthy subjects and angina pectoris patients

To examine 2-year changes in carotid and aortic ¹⁸F-sodium fluoride (NaF) uptake in both healthy controls and angina pectoris patients. Twenty-nine healthy subjects and 20 angina pectoris patients underwent 90-min NaF-PET/CT twice 2 years apart. The carotids and three sections of the aorta (arch, thoracic, abdominal) were manually segmented. NaF uptake was expressed as the mean and total standardized uptake values without and with partial volume correction (SUVmean, SUVtotal and pvcSUVmean, pvcSUVtotal). Insignificant tendencies were higher NaF uptake in angina patients at both time points with less uptake in healthy subjects and higher uptake in angina patients after 2 years. Thus, aortic pvcSUVmean of angina patients was 1.14 ± 0.35 and 1.29 ± 0.71 at baseline and after 2 years vs. 0.99 ± 0.31 and 0.95 ± 0.28 in healthy subjects. A similar pattern was observed for the carotid pvcSUVmean. NaF uptake at baseline could not predict a change in CT-calcification after 2 years. NaF uptake in all parts of the aorta correlated positively with age. There was an insignificant, but consistent, tendency for slightly higher arterial NaF uptake in the angina group indicating more ongoing microcalcification at both time points in patients than healthy subjects. The 2-year changes were in both groups very small suggesting that the atherosclerotic process is slow, albeit with a tendency of slight decreases among healthy controls and slight increases in angina patients despite statin therapy in half of these.