Department of Nuclear Medicine, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany.
J Nucl Med. 2011 Dec;52(12):1848-54. doi: 10.2967/jnumed.111.095869. Epub 2011 Nov 7.
Fatty acids are a common constituent of atherosclerotic plaque and may be synthesized in the plaque itself. Fatty acid synthesis requires acetyl-coenzyme-A (CoA) as a main substrate, which is produced from acetate. Currently, (11)C-acetate PET/CT is used for the evaluation of malignancies. There are no data concerning its potential for the characterization of atherosclerotic plaque. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to examine the prevalence, distribution, and topographic relationship of arterial (11)C-acetate uptake and vascular calcification in major arteries.
Thirty-six patients were examined by whole-body (11)C-acetate PET/CT. Tracer uptake in various arterial segments was analyzed both qualitatively and semiquantitatively by measuring the blood-pool-corrected standardized uptake value (target-to-background ratio). CT images were used to measure calcified plaque burden.
(11)C-acetate uptake was observed at 220 sites in 32 (88.8%) of the 36 study patients, and mean target-to-background ratio was 2.5 ± 1.0. Calcified atherosclerotic lesions were observed at 483 sites in 30 (83.3%) patients. Sixty-four (29.1%) of the 220 lesions with marked (11)C-acetate uptake were colocalized with arterial calcification. However, only 13.3% of all arterial calcification sites demonstrated increased radiotracer accumulation.
Our data indicate the feasibility of using (11)C-acetate PET/CT for imaging of fatty acid synthesis in the atherosclerotic vessel wall. This study provides a rationale to incorporating (11)C-acetate PET into further preclinical and clinical studies to obtain new insights into fatty acid synthesis in atherosclerotic lesions and to evaluate whether it may be used to monitor pharmacologic intervention with fatty acid synthase inhibitors.
探讨动脉（11）C-乙酸摄取与大血管钙化的分布、分布及拓扑关系。
36 例患者行全身（11）C-乙酸 PET/CT 检查。通过测量血池校正标准化摄取值（靶/背景比），对各动脉节段的示踪剂摄取进行定性和半定量分析。CT 图像用于测量钙化斑块负荷。
36 例研究患者中有 32 例（88.8%）在 220 个部位观察到（11）C-乙酸摄取，平均靶/背景比为 2.5±1.0。在 30 例（83.3%）患者中观察到 483 个钙化粥样硬化病变部位。64 个（29.1%）摄取明显（11）C-乙酸的病变与动脉钙化部位相重叠。然而，只有 13.3%的所有动脉钙化部位显示放射性示踪剂摄取增加。
我们的数据表明，（11）C-乙酸 PET/CT 可用于成像动脉粥样硬化血管壁中的脂肪酸合成。这项研究为将（11）C-乙酸 PET 纳入进一步的临床前和临床研究提供了依据，以获得脂肪酸合成在动脉粥样硬化病变中的新见解，并评估其是否可用于监测脂肪酸合酶抑制剂的药物干预。
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