Key result
Nuclear imaging enables noninvasive tracking of cardiovascular inflammation to guide targeted therapies and risk stratification.
Why the study?
Inflammation contributes to cardiovascular disease progression and immune cell roles diverge between patients, creating a need to discuss nuclear imaging methods to label and track immune cells to guide individualized therapy.
Nuclear imaging of immune cells provides a noninvasive approach to quantify inflammation, stratify risk, and guide targeted therapies in cardiovascular disease.
Inflammation is a key mechanistic contributor to the progression of cardiovascular disease, from atherosclerosis through ischemic injury and overt heart failure. Recent evidence has identified specific roles of immune cell subpopulations in cardiac pathogenesis that diverges between individual patients. Nuclear imaging approaches facilitate noninvasive and serial quantification of inflammation severity, offering the opportunity to predict eventual outcome, stratify patient risk, and guide novel targeted molecular therapies against specific leukocyte subpopulations. Here, we will discuss the established and emerging nuclear imaging methods to label and track exogenous and endogenous immune cells, with a particular focus on clinical situations in which targeted molecular inflammation imaging would be advantageous. The expanding options for imaging inflammation provide the foundation to bridge between molecular imaging and individual therapy.
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Heo et al. (2023) conducted a review in Cardiovascular disease. Nuclear imaging (PET/SPECT) was evaluated. Nuclear imaging approaches facilitate noninvasive and serial quantification of inflammation severity in cardiovascular disease, offering the opportunity to predict outcomes and guide targeted therapies.
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