Established and Emerging Fluorine-18-Labeled Cardiac PET Radiotracers

Area of Science:

• Cardiovascular Imaging
• Nuclear Medicine
• Radiopharmaceutical Development

Background:

• Positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography is crucial for cardiovascular disease characterization.
• Fluorine-18 (¹⁸F) offers advantages for PET imaging due to its half-life and spatial resolution.
• Existing ¹⁸F-FDG PET is used for myocardial viability and infections, but new tracers are needed.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review emerging ¹⁸F-labeled probes for cardiac PET imaging.
• To highlight advancements in characterizing cardiovascular diseases using novel tracers.
• To explore applications in cardiac sarcoidosis, myocardial innervation, and fibrosis.

Main Methods:

• Review of current literature on ¹⁸F-labeled radiopharmaceuticals for cardiac PET.
• Discussion of approved and clinically evaluated tracers.
• Exploration of novel probes for specific cardiac conditions.

Main Results:

• ¹⁸F-flurpiridaz approved for myocardial perfusion and blood flow quantitation.
• ¹⁸F-sodium fluoride detects active coronary atherosclerotic lesions.
• ¹⁸F-labeled amyloid tracers (florbetapir, flutemetamol, florbetaben) are available.

Conclusions:

• Novel ¹⁸F-labeled probes are expanding the utility of cardiac PET.
• These tracers offer new avenues for diagnosing and monitoring cardiovascular diseases.
• Future research focuses on probes for cardiac sarcoidosis, innervation, and fibrosis.