Positron emission tomographic studies of the association between atherogenesis and aortitis among psoriatic patients

There is increased interest in the use of positron emission tomography (PET) in psoriatic patients. We used PET induced with tracer fluorine-18 (¹⁸F) fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) to study the association between the process of early-atherogenesis (eAg) and aortitis by quantifying enhanced aortic vascular inflammation along with calculation of total coronary plaque load (TCPL) and non-calcified atherosclerotic plaque load (NcAPL). In order to study the utility of aortitis in capturing eAg, we also assessed luminal stenosis atherosclerosis (LSA) and high-risk coronary plaques (HrCP).

The study was conducted at our hospital between 1 April 2014 and 31 December 2017, and the analysis was done in July 2018. We recruited 180 consecutive psoriatic patients and subjected them to ¹⁸F-FDG PET. However, in order to characterise eAg, 160 out of 180 patients were also subjected to coronary angiographic computed tomographic studies (CACTS).

Among 180 psoriatic patients (76 women, 42%) (mean [SD] age, 51.1 [13.2] years), greater prevalence values of LSA (odd ratio [OR], 3.71; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.84-7.89; p = 0.001) and HrCP (OR, 3.11; 95% CI: 1.54-6.51; p = 0.003) along with enhanced TCPL (standardised β = 0.44; p < 0.001) were observed in patients with enhanced aortitis. However, the association between aortitis and HrCP was controlled by low-attenuation plaque (LAP), while the same between aortitis and TCPL was controlled by NcAPL (β = 0.45; p < 0.001).

Association between aortitis and broad coronary angiographic indices was achieved and hence predicted the possibility of a surrogate role of aortitis in eAg.