Published in:
01-12-2021 | Computed Tomography | Editorial
Narrowing in on a PET tracer that characterizes coronary atheroma: 18F-NaF uptake is increased in stenotic coronary artery disease
Authors:
Michael T. Osborne, MD, Taimur A. Abbasi, MD, Mazen S. Albaghdadi, MD, Msc
Published in:
Journal of Nuclear Cardiology
|
Issue 6/2021
Login to get access
Excerpt
A positron emission tomography (PET) imaging tracer that provides a meaningful and clinically deployable risk assessment in coronary artery disease (CAD) has been sought enthusiastically for over a decade. Molecular imaging with PET is uniquely suited for imaging atherosclerosis because it is performed in conjunction with computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging as part of a single scan, allowing a simultaneous assessment of disease pathobiology and activity at a molecular level as well as an anatomic evaluation of atherosclerotic plaques. While PET imaging has established itself as a mainstay for the functional assessment of CAD physiology, PET has not yet met its great potential to deliver a measurement of biological activity in coronary atheroma that concurrently provides meaningful clinical risk stratification. …
