19 Aug 21. Featured Paper

Positron emission tomography techniques to measure active inflammation, fibrosis & angiogenesis: potential for non-invasive imaging of hypertensive heart failure

Link to paper on Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine

Authors

Viktoria Balogh, Mark G. MacAskill, Patrick W. F. Hadoke, Gillian A. Gray & Adriana A. S. Tavares

Abstract

Heart failure, which is responsible for a high number of deaths worldwide, can develop due to chronic hypertension.

Heart failure can involve & progress through several different pathways, including: fibrosis, inflammation, & angiogenesis.

Early & specific detection of changes in the myocardium during the transition to heart failure can be made via the use of molecular imaging techniques, including positron emission tomography (PET).

Traditional cardiovascular PET techniques, such as myocardial perfusion imaging & sympathetic innervation imaging, have been established at the clinical level but are often lacking in pathway & target specificity that is important for assessment of heart failure.

Therefore, there is a need to identify new PET imaging markers of inflammation, fibrosis & angiogenesis that could aid diagnosis, staging & treatment of hypertensive heart failure.

This review will provide an overview of key mechanisms underlying hypertensive heart failure & will present the latest developments in PET probes for detection of cardiovascular inflammation, fibrosis & angiogenesis.

Currently, selective PET probes for detection of angiogenesis remain elusive but promising PET probes for specific targeting of inflammation & fibrosis are rapidly progressing into clinical use.

Keywords

• Angiogenesis
• Fibrosis
• Hypertensive heart failure
• Inflammation
• PET imaging