Excessive Aortic Inflammation in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: An 18F-FDG PET Pilot Study

Abstract

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients exhibit increased cardiovascular risk, even after controlling for smoking. Inflammation may underlie this observation. We measured vascular inflammation in both COPD patients and controls using (18)F-FDG PET/CT. Aortic inflammation was expressed as the target-to-background ratio (TBR) of the standardized uptake value in 7 COPD patients, 5 metabolic syndrome patients, and 7 ex-smokers. Abdominal aortic mean TBR (+/-SD) was greater in COPD patients than in ex-smoker controls (1.60 +/- 0.13 vs. 1.34 +/- 0.15, P = 0.0001). Aortic arch and abdominal aorta mean TBRs were higher in metabolic syndrome patients than in COPD patients (aortic arch, 1.80 +/- 0.18 vs. 1.53 +/- 0.18, P = 0.001, and abdominal aorta, 1.71 +/- 0.14 vs. 1.60 +/- 0.13, P = 0.001). COPD patients exhibited aortic inflammation that fell between the aortic inflammation exhibited by ex-smokers and that by metabolic syndrome patients. This may in part explain the increased risk of cardiovascular disease in COPD patients.