PET/CT imaging reveals risk of major adverse cardiovascular events in pneumonia patients: Study
Canada: FDG-PET/CT scans have revealed that vascular inflammation may trigger high rates of adverse events and heart attacks in pneumonia patients, says a study published in JACC: Cardiovascular Imaging. The findings imply a mechanistic link between vascular inflammation and MACE (major adverse cardiovascular events).
Patients with CAP (community-acquired pneumonia) are reported to be at increased risk of MACE, and this risk remains increased for months to years after the resolution of the infection. As measured by F-18 FDG PET/CT scans, vascular inflammation in the aortic walls is associated strongly with the MACE risk. Thus, a plausible mechanism for the elevated risk of MACE in CAP survivors is the increased vascular inflammatory activity post-community-acquired pneumonia. Despite this, any putative changes in vascular inflammatory activity after CAP have not been investigated.
Against the above background, Vicente Corrales-Medina from the University of Ottawa in Ontario, Canada, and colleagues examined F-18 FDG scans in patients before and after their recovery from community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). They found that a higher aortic inflammation observed on the scans could indicate poor outcomes in these patients.
For this purpose, the researchers enrolled 25 consecutive community-dwelling adults aged 65 years or older admitted to the Ottawa Hospital in Ontario between 2015 to 2018 with symptoms consistent with pneumonia but of less than two weeks duration. Study participants underwent F-18 FDG-PET/CT scans to detect aortic inflammation within the first 72 hours of hospitalization and again 30 to 45 days after discharge.
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