Martine Truijman1,
2, Robert Kwee1, Michaela Gaens1, 3,
Raf van Hoof1, 3, Evelien Hermeling1, 3,
Stefan V, 34, Rob van der Geest5, Tobien Schreuder6,
Narender van Orshoven7, Be Meems8, Felix Mottaghy4,
Robert J. van Oostenbrugge, 39, Werner Mess2, Joachim
E. Wildberger1, Walter H. Backes1, M.J.A.P. Daemen10,
Jan Bucerius, 34, Eline Kooi1, 11
1Radiology,
MUMC, Maastricht, Netherlands; 2Clinical Neurophysiology, MUMC,
Maastricht, Netherlands; 3Cardiovascular Research Institute
Maastricht, MUMC, Maastricht, Netherlands; 4Nuclear Medicine,
MUMC, Maastricht, Netherlands; 5Radiology, Leiden University
Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands; 6Neurology, Atrium Medical
Center, Heerlen, Netherlands; 7Neurology, Orbis Medical Center,
Sittard, Netherlands; 8Neurology, Viecuri, Venlo, Netherlands; 9Neurology,
MUMC, Maastricht, Netherlands; 10Pathology, Amsterdam Medical
Center, Amsterdam, Netherlands; 11Cardiovascular Research
Institute Maastricht, MUMC, Maastricht , Netherlands
Identifying vulnerable atherosclerotic plaques in symptomatic patients with moderate (30-69%) carotid artery stenosis can contribute to clinical decision making in performing a carotid endarterectomy. Inflammation, assessed with 18F-FDG PET and microvasculature, assessed with dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE-MRI), are important features of a vulnerable plaque. The purpose of this study is to investigate the correlation between these two features to study whether these imaging modalities are interchangeable or provide additional information. We found a weak but significant positive correlation between mean Ktrans and mean SUV, meaning that these techniques are not interchangeable.
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