Matter CM Wyss MT Meier P Späth N von Lukowicz T Lohmann C Weber B Ramirez de Molina A Lacal JC Ametamey SM von Schulthess GK Lüscher TF Kaufmann PA Buck A 2006 OBJECTIVE Current imaging modalities of atherosclerosis mainly visualize plaque morphology. Valuable insight into plaque biology was achieved by visualizing enhanced metabolism in plaque-derived macrophages using 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG). Similarly, enhanced uptake of 18F-fluorocholine (18F-FCH) was associated with macrophages surrounding an abscess. As macrophages are important determinants of plaque vulnerability, we tested 18F-FCH for plaque imaging. METHODS AND RESULTS We injected 18F-FCH (n=5) or 18F-FDG (n=5) intravenously into atherosclerotic apolipoprotein E-deficient mice. En face measurements of aortae isolated 20 minutes after 18F-FCH injections demonstrated an excellent correlation between fat stainings and autoradiographies (r=0.842, P<0.0001), achieving a sensitivity of 84% to detect plaques by 18F-FCH. In contrast, radiotracer uptake 20 minutes after 18F-FDG injections correlated less with en face fat stainings (r=0.261, P<0.05), reaching a sensitivity of 64%. Histological analyses of cross-sections 20 minutes after coinjections of 18F-FCH and 14C-FDG (n=3) showed that 18F-FCH uptake correlated better with fat staining (r=0.740, P<0.0001) and macrophage-positive areas (r=0.740, P<0.0001) than 14C-FDG (fat: r=0.236, P=0.29 and CD68 staining: r=0.352, P=0.11), respectively. CONCLUSIONS 18F-FCH identifies murine plaques better than 18F-FDG using ex vivo imaging. Enhanced 18F-FCH uptake into macrophages may render this tracer a promising candidate for imaging plaques in patients. application/pdf https://sonar.ch/global/documents/4160 eng info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1161/01.ATV.0000200106.34016.18 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/pmid/16357314 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Arteriosclerosis, thrombosis, and vascular biology. - 2006 Animals Aorta Apolipoproteins E Atherosclerosis Autoradiography Choline Choline Kinase Fluorine Radioisotopes Fluorodeoxyglucose F18 Macrophages Male Mice Mice, Inbred C57BL Mice, Knockout Positron-Emission Tomography Radiopharmaceuticals Sensitivity and Specificity 18F-choline images murine atherosclerotic plaques ex vivo. http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501