Abstract

Background

Aortic microcalcification activity is a recently described method of measuring aortic sodium [18F]fluoride uptake in the thoracic aorta on positron emission tomography. In this study, we aimed to compare and to modify this method for use within the infrarenal aorta of patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms.

Methods

Twenty-five patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms underwent an sodium [18F]fluoride positron emission tomography and computed tomography scan. Maximum and mean tissue-to-background ratios (TBR) and abdominal aortic microcalcification activity were determined following application of a thresholding and variable radius method to correct for vertebral sodium [18F]fluoride signal spill-over and the nonlinear changes in aortic diameter, respectively. Agreement between the methods, and repeatability of these approaches were assessed.

Results

The aortic microcalcification activity method was much quicker to perform than the TBR method (14 versus 40 min, p < 0.001). There was moderate-to-good agreement between TBR and aortic microcalcification activity measurements for maximum (interclass correlation co-efficient, 0.67) and mean (interclass correlation co-efficient, 0.88) values. These correlations sequentially improved with the application of thresholding (intraclass correlation coefficient 0.93, 95% confidence interval 0.89–0.95) and variable diameter (intraclass correlation coefficient 0.97, 95% confidence interval 0.94–0.99) techniques. The optimised method had good intra-observer (mean 1.57 ± 0.42, bias 0.08, co-efficient of repeatability 0.36 and limits of agreement − 0.43 to 0.43) and inter-observer (mean 1.57 ± 0.42, bias 0.08, co-efficient of repeatability 0.47 and limits of agreement − 0.53 to 0.53) repeatability.

Conclusions

Aortic microcalcification activity is a quick and simple method which demonstrates good intra-observer and inter-observer repeatabilities and provides measures of sodium [18F]fluoride uptake that are comparable to established methods.

Details

Title
Quantifying sodium [18F]fluoride uptake in abdominal aortic aneurysms
Author
Debono, Samuel 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Nash, Jennifer 1 ; Fletcher, Alexander J. 1 ; Syed, Maaz B. J. 1 ; Semple, Scott I. 1 ; van Beek, Edwin J. R. 2 ; Fletcher, Alison 3 ; Cadet, Sebastien 4 ; Williams, Michelle C. 1 ; Dey, Damini 4 ; Slomka, Piotr J. 4 ; Forsythe, Rachael O. 1 ; Dweck, Marc R. 1 ; Newby, David E. 1 

1  University of Edinburgh, The University of Edinburgh Centre for Cardiovascular Science, Chancellor’s Building, Edinburgh, UK (GRID:grid.4305.2) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 7988) 
2  University of Edinburgh, The University of Edinburgh Centre for Cardiovascular Science, Chancellor’s Building, Edinburgh, UK (GRID:grid.4305.2) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 7988); University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Imaging Facility, Queen’s Medical Research Institute, Edinburgh, UK (GRID:grid.4305.2) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 7988) 
3  University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Imaging Facility, Queen’s Medical Research Institute, Edinburgh, UK (GRID:grid.4305.2) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 7988) 
4  Biomedical Imaging Research Institute, Division of Artificial Intelligence, Department of Medicine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre, Los Angeles, USA (GRID:grid.50956.3f) (ISNI:0000 0001 2152 9905) 
Publication year
2022
Publication date
Dec 2022
Publisher
Springer Nature B.V.
e-ISSN
2191219X
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13550-022-00904-z
ProQuest document ID
2673451303
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2022. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.