Journal Article

Feasibility of in vivo 18F-florbetaben PET/MR imaging of human carotid amyloid-beta

Bucerius, Jan, Patt, Marianne, Biessen, Erik A; L, Gertz, Hermann-josef, Mottaghy, Felix M, Barthel, Henryk, Tiepolt, Solveig, Sluimer, Judith C, Werner, Peter, Hesse, Swen, Sabri, Osama, Wildberger, Joachim E

2017

Overview

Purpose Amyloid-beta (A[beta]) peptides are involved in the inflammatory pathology of atherosclerosis. 18F-Florbetaben is a PET tracer for clinical imaging of cerebral A[beta] plaques in Alzheimer's disease (AD). We sought to determine whether specific uptake of 18F-florbetaben in the carotid arteries can be identified using a fully integrated hybrid PET/MRI system and whether this uptake is associated with clinical cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors. Methods Carotid 18F-florbetaben uptake was quantified as the mean of the maximum target-to-background ratio (meanTBRmax) in 40 cognitively impaired subjects (age 68.2±9.5 years) undergoing 18F-florbetaben PET/MRI to diagnose AD. Associations between carotid 18F-florbetaben uptake and several CVD risk factors were assessed by univariate analysis followed by a multivariate linear regression analysis. Furthermore, carotid 18F-florbetaben uptake was compared between patients with and without a positive cerebral A[beta] PET scan. Results 18F-Florbetaben uptake was clearly visualized in the carotid arteries. Values of meanTBRmax corrected for the blood pool activity of the tracer showed specific 18F-florbetaben uptake in the carotid wall. Male gender was associated with carotid 18F-florbetaben uptake in the univariate analysis, and was found to be an independent predictor of 18F-florbetaben uptake in the multivariate regression analysis (standardized regression coefficient [beta]=0.407, p=0.009). Carotid 18F-florbetaben meanTBRmax in patients with a positive cerebral A[beta] scan did not differ from that in patients without cerebral A[beta] deposits. Conclusion Specific 18F-florbetaben uptake in human carotid arteries was detected. Male gender was identified as an independent clinical risk factor. Therefore, 18F-florbetaben PET/MRI might provide new insights into the pathophysiological process in atherosclerosis.

• Publisher: Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Age / Alzheimer's disease / Arteriosclerosis / Atherosclerosis / Beta / Cardiovascular diseases / Carotid arteries / Carotid artery / Fluorine isotopes / Hybrid systems / Inflammation / Magnetic resonance imaging / Neurodegenerative diseases / Patients / Peptides / Plaques / Positron emission / Regression analysis / Regression coefficients / Risk analysis / Risk assessment / Risk factors / Tomography / Veins & arteries / β-Amyloid