Cardiovascular Infection and Inflammation

ASNC imaging guidelines/SNMMI procedure standard for positron emission tomography (PET) nuclear cardiology procedures

“…114,115 While the technique is potentially useful in a variety of inflammatory conditions, such as giant cell myocarditis 116 and viral myocarditis, 117 currently the predominant use is for identification of active cardiac sarcoidosis. Another emerging application is for identification of cardiovascular infections, particularly prosthesis and device infection.…”

Role of 18F-FDG PET/CT in the diagnosis of inflammatory and infectious vascular disease

“…Although there are sporadic reports on the use of 18F-FDG PET in a variety of vasculitides of small and medium size vessels such as polyarteritis nodosa, Churg-Strauss syndrome or Wegener's granulomatosis, this technique is used at present mainly in large vessel vasculitis [3,7]. PET technique due to limited spatial resolution is not yet a reliable tool for the assessment of the medium and small size-vessel vasculitis.…”

“…Arterial wall activity increases with age and also in patients with hypertension and hyperlipidemia. Increased arteries activity of FDG has been reported in 31-59% of cancer patients over 50 years of age [3].…”

“…Hence, 18F-FDG PET/CT is designated for diagnosis of various inflammatory and infectious diseases, such as: sarcoidosis, inflammatory bowel disease, osteomyelitis, spondylodiscitis, fever of unknown origin (FUO), primary evaluation of vasculitides, vascular prostheses infection, and infection of intravascular devices, pacemakers and catheters [1]. Additionally, the hybrid approach of FDG PET/CT gives an complementary information about inflammatory or infectious -increased FDG uptake is seen mainly in active processes, whereas CT provides information of the advance stages, for example calcification in chronic or past inflammation [3]. To avoid false positive results in vascular diseases evaluation, one should be aware that in physiological conditions, large arteries like: aorta, iliac and femoral, subclavian and carotid arteries, present homogeneously increased activity of FDG.…”

An unusual looking pacemaker infection imaged with 18F-FDG PET/CT

“…Recently, 18 F-FDG PET/CT has emerged as a valuable tool to evaluate infection as illustrated in this pediatric case [1][2][3]. A 9-year-old boy was hospitalized for low-grade fever and induration in the epigastric region.…”