Quantifying sodium [18F]fluoride uptake in abdominal aortic aneurysms

Samuel Debono, Jennifer Nash, Alexander J Fletcher , Maaz Syed, Scott I Semple, Edwin J R van Beek, Alison Fletcher, Sebastien Cadet, Michelle C Williams, Damini Dey, Piotr J Slomka, Rachael O Forsythe, Marc R Dweck, David E Newby

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract / Description of output

Background
Aortic microcalcification activity is a recently described method of measuring aortic sodium [ F]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 [ F]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
[ F]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 [ F]fluoride uptake that are comparable to established methods.
Original languageEnglish
JournalEJNMMI research
Early online date6 Jun 2022
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 6 Jun 2022

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