Association of glucose uptake of visceral fat and acute myocardial infarction: a pilot 18F-FDG PET/CT study

Abstract

Background Inflamed visceral adipose tissue (VAT) facilitates chronic inflammation in atherosclerotic lesions thereby leading to increased risk of coronary artery disease (CAD). In this study, we evaluated the glucose uptake of VAT and the carotid artery with 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (18F-FDG PET/CT) and their association with CAD, including acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Methods A total of 90 participants were enrolled (32 with AMI, 33 with chronic stable angina; CSA, and 25 control participants) and undertook 18F-FDG PET/CT. VAT glucose uptake was measured by using maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) of VAT region. The target-to-background ratio (TBR) of carotid artery was defined as the SUVmax of carotid artery divided by the SUVmax of jugular vein. The SUVmax of spleen, bone-marrow (BM), and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) were used for the assessment of systemic inflammatory activity. Results VAT SUVmax was highest in participants with AMI, intermediate in participants with CSA, and lowest in control participants. Carotid artery TBR and systemic inflammatory surrogate markers including spleen SUVmax, BM SUVmax, and hsCRP were also higher in the AMI group than in the CSA or control group. Furthermore, VAT SUVmax showed significant positive correlation with carotid artery TBR, spleen SUVmax, BM SUVmax, and hsCRP. In multivariate linear regression and logistic regression analyses, VAT SUVmax was independently associated with carotid artery TBR and AMI. Conclusions Glucose uptake of VAT assessed by 18F-FDG PET/CT was associated with the severity of CAD and synchronized with the carotid artery inflammation in participants with CAD.

Metabolic Activity of Visceral Adipose Tissue Is Associated with Metastatic Status of Lymph Nodes in Endometrial Cancer: A 18F-FDG PET/CT Study

“…Thus, we next examined whether VAT SUVmax showed a significant correlation with systemic inflammation in patients with endometrial cancer. As shown in Table 2 , both VAT SUVmax and V/S ratio were significantly correlated with surrogate markers for systemic inflammation, consistent with previous studies [ 23 , 24 ]. In contrast, SAT SUVmax was not significantly correlated with systemic inflammation.…”

Measuring Visceral Adipose Tissue Metabolic Activity in Sleep Apnea Utilizing Hybrid 18F-FDG PET/MRI: A Pilot Study

“… 36 , 53 Pahk et al demonstrated that glucose uptake of VAT assessed by 18 F-FDG PET/CT was associated with severity of CAD and carotid artery atherosclerosis. 35 Therefore, increased VAT inflammation and metabolic activity (as demonstrated in our preliminary results) may act as a mediator for cardiovascular risk in patients with OSA.…”

“… 34 A recent study demonstrated that 18 F-FDG uptake by VAT measured using 18 F-FDG positron emission tomography (PET)/CT was positively associated with severity of coronary artery disease (CAD) and carotid artery atherosclerosis. 35 Therefore, assessing the metabolic and inflammatory properties of VAT in association with OSA is novel, and may serve as a unique imaging biomarker to quantify the inflammatory burden in VAT, potentially informing differential cardiometabolic risk profiles in subgroups of OSA patients. Hybrid 18 F-FDG PET/magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be utilized as a novel method for both volumetric and metabolic assessment of abdominal adipose tissue depots.…”

18F-FDG uptake of visceral adipose tissue on preoperative PET/CT as a predictive marker for breast cancer recurrence

“…Adipokines, secreted by adipocytes, have been receiving attention for their role in cancer metabolism 26 . Regarding VAT, a special compartment of adipocytes, its upregulated activity has been a point of focus in several studies: VAT activity was related to myocardial infarction 8 . It also reflected the inflammatory status of the carotid artery in metabolic syndrome 27 , 28 .…”