Research progress of nuclear medicine imaging in detection of vulnerable atherosclerotic plaques / 中华核医学与分子影像杂志

ABSTRACT

Atherosclerosis is a vascular inflammatory disease.Vulnerable atherosclerotic plaques mainly lead to severe cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases,such as myocardial infarction and stroke.The research on the early diagnosis of vulnerable plaques becomes currently urgent.As a noninvasive molecular modality,the nuclear medicine imaging (with specific radiolabeled probes) has been used for the detection of unstable plaques,and for the evaluation of therapeutic effect of anti-atherosclerotic drugs.Nuclear imaging techniques for detecting metabolic activity,inflammation,hypoxia,angiogenesis,apoptosis,and microcalcification in unstable plaques are summarized in this review.