Heightened splenic and bone marrow uptake of 18F-FDG PET/CT is associated with systemic inflammation and subclinical atherosclerosis by CCTA in psoriasis: An observational study

• Published in: Atherosclerosis 2021-12, Vol.339, p.20-26
• Main Authors: Patel, Nidhi H., Osborne, Michael T., Teague, Heather, Parel, Philip, Svirydava, Mariya, Sorokin, Alexander V., Teklu, Meron, Manyak, Grigory, Zhou, Wunan, Pantoja, Carla, Scott, Colin, Playford, Martin P., Kapoor, Promita, Rodante, Justin A., Keel, Andrew, Chen, Marcus, Tawakol, Ahmed, Mehta, Nehal N.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Atherosclerosis; Computerized tomography (CT); Coronary artery disease; Inflammation; Nuclear cardiology and PET
• ISSN: 0021-9150; 1879-1484
• DOI: 10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2021.11.008

Psoriasis is an immune-mediated inflammatory disease with increased risk of myocardial infarction. Preclinical studies in psoriasis models show an association between chronic inflammation and immune cell proliferation in the spleen and bone marrow (BM). We sought to test the hypothesis that splenic and BM 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) uptake is heightened in psoriasis and that higher uptake associates with systemic inflammation and subclinical atherosclerotic disease measures in this cohort. Multimodality imaging and biomarker assays were performed in 240 participants (210 with psoriasis and 30 healthy). Splenic and BM uptake was obtained using 18F-FDG positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT). Coronary artery plaque characteristics including non-calcified burden (NCB) and lipid rich necrotic core (LRNC) were quantified using a dedicated software for CT angiography. All analyses were performed with StataIC 16 (Stata Corp., College Station, TX, USA). Splenic and BM 18F-FDG uptake was increased in psoriasis (vs. healthy volunteers) and significantly associated with proatherogenic lipids, immune cells and systemic inflammation. Higher splenic 18F-FDG uptake associated with higher total coronary burden (β = 0.37; p