In Vivo Classification and Characterization of Carotid Atherosclerotic Lesions with Integrated F-FDG PET/MRI.

BACKGROUND

The aim of this study was to exploit integrated PET/MRI to simultaneously evaluate the morphological, component, and metabolic features of advanced atherosclerotic plaques and explore their incremental value.

METHODS

In this observational prospective cohort study, patients with advanced plaque in the carotid artery underwent F-FDG PET/MRI. Plaque morphological features were measured, and plaque component features were determined via MRI according to AHA lesion-types. Maximum standardized uptake values (SUV) and tissue to background ratio (TBR) on PET were calculated. Area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUC) and net reclassification improvement (NRI) were used to compare the incremental contribution of FDG uptake when added to AHA lesion-types for symptomatic plaque classification.

RESULTS

A total of 280 patients with advanced plaque in the carotid artery were recruited. A total of 402 plaques were confirmed, and 87 of 402 (21.6%) were symptomatic plaques. F-FDG PET/MRI was performed a mean of 38 days (range 1-90) after the symptom. Increased stenosis degree (61.5% vs. 50.0%, < 0.001) and TBR (2.96 vs. 2.32, < 0.001) were observed in symptomatic plaques compared with asymptomatic plaques. The performance of the combined model (AHA lesion type VI + stenosis degree + TBR) for predicting symptomatic plaques was the best among all models (AUC = 0.789). The improvement of the combined model (AHA lesion type VII + stenosis degree + TBR) over AHA lesion type VII model for predicting symptomatic plaques was the highest (AUC = 0.757/0.454, combined model/AHA lesion type VII model), and the NRI was 50.7%.

CONCLUSIONS

Integrated PET/MRI could simultaneously evaluate the morphological component and inflammation features of advanced atherosclerotic plaques and provide supplementary optimization information over AHA lesion-types for identifying vulnerable plaques in atherosclerosis subjects to achieve further stratification of stroke risk.