Cardiac MR PET CT Program, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Gordon Center for Medical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
J Nucl Cardiol. 2020 Apr;27(2):505-507. doi: 10.1007/s12350-018-1454-x. Epub 2018 Oct 26.
Coronary vascular events are most often caused by rupture of atherosclerotic plaques. Prior to their rupture, such plaques are likely to have at least one of several high-risk structural or biological processes known to associate with increased risk of atherothrombosis. Thus, efforts have long been directed to identify these high risk features non-invasively. While current imaging modalities are adept at measuring high-risk structural features, such as luminal stenosis and vessel wall morphology, they cannot directly report on the important high-risk biological features. On the other hand, molecular imaging techniques, such as positron emission tomography (PET) coupled with sensitive probes provide a unique opportunity to assess atherosclerotic plaque biology, and have the potential to complement structural information and thus, improve risk stratification and enable enhanced monitoring of therapeutic interventions.
冠状动脉血管事件通常是由动脉粥样硬化斑块破裂引起的。在破裂之前，这些斑块很可能至少有几种与动脉血栓形成风险增加相关的高危结构或生物学过程之一。因此，人们一直致力于无创地识别这些高危特征。虽然目前的成像方式擅长测量高危结构特征，如管腔狭窄和血管壁形态，但它们不能直接报告重要的高危生物学特征。另一方面，分子成像技术，如正电子发射断层扫描（PET）结合敏感探针，为评估动脉粥样硬化斑块生物学提供了独特的机会，并有潜力补充结构信息，从而改善风险分层，并实现治疗干预的增强监测。
