Current and novel radiopharmaceuticals for imaging cardiovascular inflammation.

Current and novel radiopharmaceuticals for imaging cardiovascular inflammation. Q J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2020 Feb 18;: Authors: Heo GS, Sultan D, Liu Y Abstract Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of death worldwide despite advances in diagnostic technologies and treatment strategies. The underlying cause of most CVD is atherosclerosis, a chronic disease driven by inflammatory reactions. Atherosclerotic plaque rupture could cause arterial occlusion leading to ischemic tissue injuries such as myocardial infarction (MI) and stroke. Clinically, most imaging modalities are based on anatomy and provide limited information about the on-going molecular activities affecting the vulnerability of atherosclerotic lesion for risk stratification of patients. Thus, the ability to differentiate stable plaques from those that are vulnerable is an unmet clinical need. Of various imaging techniques, the radionuclide-based molecular imaging modalities including positron emission tomography (PET) and single-photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT) provide superior ability to noninvasively visualize molecular activities in vivo and may serve as a useful tool in tackling this challenge. Moreover, the well-established translational pathway of radiopharmaceuticals may also facilitate the translation of discoveries from benchtop to clinical investigation in contrast to other imaging modalities to fulfill the goal of precision medic...
Source: Quarterly Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging - Category: Nuclear Medicine Tags: Q J Nucl Med Mol Imaging Source Type: research