Key result
Cardiovascular PET imaging tracks active disease mechanisms across ischemic, inflammatory, and valvular heart conditions.
Why the study?
Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, and developing new therapies requires a better understanding of underlying pathology in vivo.
Does cardiovascular positron emission tomography (PET) advance the understanding and diagnostic evaluation of heart and vascular diseases?
Does cardiovascular positron emission tomography (PET) advance the understanding and diagnostic evaluation of heart and vascular diseases?
Cardiovascular PET provides critical molecular and functional insights into cardiovascular pathology, enhancing the diagnosis of conditions like infective endocarditis and microvascular dysfunction.
Supports PET-guided strategies in cardiovascular disease; leaves open prospective outcome trials before clinical adoption.
Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. For developing new therapies, a better understanding of the underlying pathology is required. Historically, such insights have been primarily derived from pathological studies. In the 21st century, thanks to the advent of cardiovascular positron emission tomography (PET), which depicts the presence and activity of pathophysiological processes, it is now feasible to assess disease activity in vivo. By targeting distinct biological pathways, PET elucidates the activity of the processes which drive disease progression, adverse outcomes or, on the contrary, those that can be considered as a healing response. Given the insights provided by PET, this non-invasive imaging technology lends itself to the development of new therapies, providing a hope for the emergence of strategies that could have a profound impact on patient outcomes. In this narrative review, we discuss recent advances in cardiovascular PET imaging which have greatly advanced our understanding of atherosclerosis, ischemia, infection, adverse myocardial remodeling and degenerative valvular heart disease.
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Błach et al. (2023) conducted a review in Cardiovascular disease. Cardiovascular positron emission tomography (PET) was evaluated. Cardiovascular PET imaging has greatly advanced the understanding of atherosclerosis, ischemia, infection, adverse myocardial remodeling, and degenerative valvular heart disease by depicting disease activity in vivo.
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