F-18-Fluorodeoxyglucose-Positron Emission Tomography Imaging Detects Response To Therapeutic Intervention And Plaque Vulnerability In A Murine Model Of Advanced Atherosclerotic Disease-Brief Report

Objective:This study sought to determine whether F-18-fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography/computed tomography could be applied to a murine model of advanced atherosclerotic plaque vulnerability to detect response to therapeutic intervention and changes in lesion stability.Approach and Results:To analyze plaques susceptible to rupture, we fed ApoE(-/-) mice a high-fat diet and induced vulnerable lesions by cast placement over the carotid artery. After 9 weeks of treatment with orthogonal therapeutic agents (including lipid-lowering and proefferocytic therapies), we assessed vascular inflammation and several features of plaque vulnerability by F-18-fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography/computed tomography and histopathology, respectively. We observed that F-18-fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography/computed tomography had the capacity to resolve histopathologically proven changes in plaque stability after treatment. Moreover, mean target-to-background ratios correlated with multiple characteristics of lesion instability, including the corrected vulnerability index.Conclusions:These results suggest that the application of noninvasive F-18-fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography/computed tomography to a murine model can allow for the identification of vulnerable atherosclerotic plaques and their response to therapeutic intervention. This approach may prove useful as a drug discovery and prioritization method.