Abstract
INTRODUCTION: There is increased interest in the use of positron emission tomography (PET) in psoriatic patients. We used PET induced with tracer fluorine-18 ((18)F) 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). MATERIAL AND METHODS: 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 (18)F-FDG PET. However, in order to characterise eAg, 160 out of 180 patients were also subjected to coronary angiographic computed tomographic studies (CACTS). RESULTS: 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). CONCLUSIONS: Association between aortitis and broad coronary angiographic indices was achieved and hence predicted the possibility of a surrogate role of aortitis in eAg.