F-18 sodium fluoride PET/CT does not effectively image myocardial inflammation due to suspected cardiac sarcoidosis

Richard L. Weinberg*, Rachelle Morgenstern, Albert DeLuca, Jennifer Chen, Sabahat Bokhari

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

Background: Sarcoidosis is an inflammatory disorder of unknown etiology that can involve the heart. While effective in imaging cardiac sarcoidosis, F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET/CT often shows non-specific myocardial uptake. F-18 sodium fluoride (NaF) has been used to image inflammation in coronary artery plaques and has low background myocardial uptake. Here, we evaluated whether F-18 NaF can image myocardial inflammation due to clinically suspected cardiac sarcoidosis. Patients and Methods: We performed a single institution pilot study testing if F-18 NaF PET/CT can detect myocardial inflammation in patients with suspected cardiac sarcoidosis. Patients underwent cardiac PET/CT with F-18 FDG as part of their routine care and subsequently received an F-18 NaF PET/CT scan. Results: Three patients underwent F-18 FDG and F-18 NaF imaging. In all patients, there was F-18 FDG uptake consistent with cardiac sarcoidosis. The F-18 NaF PET/CT scans showed no myocardial uptake. Conclusions: In this small preliminary study, PET/CT scan using F-18 NaF does not appear to detect myocardial inflammation caused by suspected cardiac sarcoidosis.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)2015-2018
Number of pages4
JournalJournal of Nuclear Cardiology
Volume24
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1 2017

Keywords

  • Cardiac inflammation
  • Cardiac PET
  • Cardiac sarcoidosis
  • F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose
  • F-18 sodium fluoride
  • PET/CT

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Radiology Nuclear Medicine and imaging
  • Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine

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