Special Issue "Imaging Vascular Infection and Inflammation by FDG-PET/CT or Radiolabelled White Blood Cells"

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue aims at providing a panoramic overview of current and future strategies for imaging vascular infections and inflammation. Both conditions still represent a challenge for clinicians and require a prompt diagnosis and initiation of adequate treatment.

Nuclear medicine imaging has rapidly gained a role in the field of infection and inflammation, and it is currently included in most of the diagnostic flowcharts for the diagnosis of vasculitis, vascular graft infections and cardiovascular infections. For some of these indications, specific interpretation criteria, able to allow an accurate diagnosis, have been published for both [¹⁸F]FDG PET/CT and radiolabelled white blood cells scintigraphy, thereby improving therapy planning; for some other clinical indications, standardized protocols of image acquisition and interpretation are still needed and deserve further prospective and comparative studies.

This Special Issue will be, therefore, focused on the possible application of [¹⁸F]FDG PET/CT and radiolabelled white blood cells scintigraphy for imaging atherosclerosis, vasculitis, vascular graft infections and other haematological conditions. In particular, it will collect papers exploring the potential of nuclear medicine imaging in the diagnostic setting of these situations as well as for monitoring disease activity after a proper treatment.

Prof. Dr. Alberto Signore
Dr. Annibale Versari
Guest Editors

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• FDG
• PET-CT
• SPECT
• radiolabelled white blood cells
• atherosclerosis
• vasculitis
• vascular grafts
• inflammation
• infection
• haematological disorders

1.Type of the paper: Review
Tentative title: Labeled leukocyte imaging of intracavitary prosthetic vascular graft infections
Authors: Christopher J. Palestro, M
Department of Radiology Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell，Hempstead, New York USA

Abstract: Although prosthetic vascular graft infections are uncommon, they are associated with a high morbidity and, in some situations, mortality. Prosthetic vascular grafts in the thorax and abdomen are referred to as intracavitary grafts. The clinical presentation of these infections depends on the graft location, pathogenesis of the infection, and the interval since surgery. Thoracic infections involving the aortic root can mimic infective endocarditis and typically occur within 3 months of surgery. Abdominal vascular graft infections usually develop months to years after placement. Symptomatic patients may present with abdominal pain, fever, sepsis, and, when there is erosion into the bowel, gastrointestinal bleeding.

The sensitivity of labeled leukocyte imaging, which has been used for diagnosing these infections for many years, ranges from about 70% to 100% and is not affected by duration of symptoms or antibiotic treatment. Specificity ranges from about 80% to 100%. SPECT/CT improves both the sensitivity and specificity and is especially useful for detecting, localizing, and defining the extent of infection.