¹⁸F-Sodium fluoride PET 이용한 심장 석회화 정량평가에 대한 고찰

The Quantitative Evaluation of Cardiac Calcification Using ¹⁸F-Sodium fluoride PET/CT

Purpose Although computed tomography (CT) is used for coronary artery calcification, it is difficult to differentiate between high risk microcalcifications. Studies have shown that ¹⁸F-sodium fluoride (¹⁸F-NaF) is very useful for the diagnosis of microcalcifications. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the usefulness of ¹⁸F-NaF PET imaging in quantitative evaluation of calcification. Materials and Methods A total of 45 patients (67.1 ± 6.9 years old) were injected with 250 MBq of ¹⁸F-NaF for 1 hour and images were acquired for 30 minutes. All patients underwent CT angiography (CTAngiography, CTA) before the PET scan. The SUVmax of calcification was measured and the background radioactivity of the left atrium was measured to determine Target to Background (TBR) and quantitatively analyzed. High risk group was classified through ROC curve (Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve). Results There were 226 coronary artery calcifications in the cohort and SUVmax was 1.15 ± 0.39. Of the 28 patients (62%), 58 were classified as high risk (TBR > 1.25). The remaining 168 were TBR ≤ 1.25. Conclusion ¹⁸F-NaF PET images were available for quantitative assessment of microcalcifications and could be classified into high-risk groups. The combination of angiographic CT and ¹⁸F-NaF PET may be a new method for early diagnosis of high-risk microcalcifications.