Total-Body Positron Emission Tomography: Adding New Perspectives to Cardiovascular Research

Simon R Cherry; Johanna Diekmann; Frank M Bengel

doi:10.1016/j.jcmg.2023.06.022

Total-Body Positron Emission Tomography: Adding New Perspectives to Cardiovascular Research

JACC Cardiovasc Imaging. 2023 Oct;16(10):1335-1347. doi: 10.1016/j.jcmg.2023.06.022. Epub 2023 Sep 6.

Authors

Simon R Cherry¹, Johanna Diekmann², Frank M Bengel³

Affiliations

¹ Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Radiology, University of California, Davis, California, USA. Electronic address: srcherry@ucdavis.edu.
² Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Radiology, University of California, Davis, California, USA; Department of Nuclear Medicine, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
³ Department of Nuclear Medicine, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.

PMID: 37676207
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcmg.2023.06.022

Abstract

The recent advent of positron emission tomography (PET) scanners that can image the entire human body opens up intriguing possibilities for cardiovascular research and future clinical applications. These new systems permit radiotracer kinetics to be measured in all organs simultaneously. They are particularly well suited to study cardiovascular disease and its effects on the entire body. They could also play a role in quantitatively measuring physiologic, metabolic, and immunologic responses in healthy individuals to a variety of stressors and lifestyle interventions, and may ultimately be instrumental for evaluating novel therapeutic agents and their molecular effects across different tissues. In this review, we summarize recent progress in PET technology and methodology, discuss several emerging cardiovascular applications for total-body PET, and place this in the context of multiorgan and systems medicine. Finally, we discuss opportunities that will be enabled by the technology, while also pointing to some of the challenges that still need to be addressed.

Keywords: atherosclerosis; cardiovascular physiology; molecular cardiology; positron emission tomography; systems-based medicine; total-body imaging.

Publication types

Review
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Human Body*
Humans
Positron-Emission Tomography / methods
Predictive Value of Tests
Tomography, X-Ray Computed*